Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)

Overview

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership ("CPTPP") has a membership of 12 economies: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Viet Nam. It is a Free Trade Agreement ("FTA") among its members and a platform for members to discuss new and emerging global trade issues, including with other economic partners and blocs. The CPTPP originated and expanded from the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (P4), a 2005 FTA among Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore.

As an Agreement, the CPTPP contains commitments aimed at easing and growing trade and investment among its members. This includes eliminating tariffs on 94 to 99% of trade in goods, reducing non-tariff barriers, easing services and investment regulations, and establishing digital trade rules, among others. The CPTPP members collectively represent approximately 15% of global GDP. The CPTPP Agreement was concluded on 23 January 2018 in Tokyo, Japan, and signed on 8 March 2018 in Santiago, Chile. The Agreement came into force for Singapore on 30 December 2018. The CPTPP continues to expand its membership through the accession of interested economies that meet the CPTPP Agreement’s commitments.

As a platform, the CPTPP is an important channel for trade and economic collaboration, especially in a world of increasing complexity. Ministers and officials of CPTPP economies regularly meet to discuss collective responses and approaches to current and future global trade issues. CPTPP economies share a commitment to expand its membership, update the Agreement, and advance dialogues with economic blocs like ASEAN and the EU. These are to facilitate greater cross-border trade and investment and further advance economic integration in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, as well as ensure that the CPTPP remains a high-standard agreement that supports inclusive growth and adapts to emerging trade and business challenges of the 21st Century.

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