A massive trade deal is being negotiated – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – which involves the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore and New Zealand.
From the US point of view, it will solidify relationships with that country’s allies and firmly establish the United States as a leader in the Pacific.
The European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), an independent and non-profit policy research think tank dedicated to trade policy, has drawn the European Commission’s attention to the implications of the TPP and the need to maintain the EU’s position in the Pacific region.
It has highlighted that, although the EU is now negotiating with all TPP countries except Australia, New Zealand and Brunei, that “blind spot” is worth US$1.5 trillion in GDP.
“The idea of an FTA (free trade agreement) with New Zealand already enjoys the support of key EU Member States,” Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director at ECIPE, said. “New Zealand is consistently ranked number one on economic and personal freedom indices and, despite accounting for only 0.2% of EU external trade, New Zealand’s economy is still on par with previous EU FTA partners like Peru and Vietnam.”
Indeed, measured in final consumption, New Zealand is larger than Chile, Malaysia and Singapore. Pointing to the existing duty-free treatments with the Pacific country, he went on: “If an FTA cannot be done with New Zealand, it cannot be done at all.”
A move in that direction is vital, he concluded, as this could very well be Europe’s last chance of overtaking the TPP.
