Plan B Forum

Nine members of an Asia Pacific trading bloc that includes Australia have committed to eliminating tariffs as soon as possible in a deal that could stand as a blueprint for the entire region.

Leaders of the nations agreed today to speed their negotiations through 2012 to put in place a schedule to phase out tariffs and remove other barriers to trade.

Japan has already indicated it wants to join the nine-member Trans Pacific Partnership, which would expand the bloc into a free trade zone with GDP more than 40 per cent bigger than the 27-nation European Union. Other Pacific nations, notably Canada and Mexico, are eyeing closely the TPP moves.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard welcomed the agreement, which was announced in Honolulu ahead of a meeting of leaders of the 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Forum.

She said she was confident the trade partnership could take the necessary strides to clinch a final deal.

There’s a very clear general proposition here,” she told reporters in Hawaii.

“Trade is good for growth and it’s good for jobs.”

The TPP nations - Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam, along with Australia – hope a successful deal will encourage other APEC nations to sign up.

The Trade minister, Craig Emerson, promised a fillip for Australian exports, although it was too early to quantify the benefits of the deal.

“Let’s have the TPP take a bit more shape,” he said.

A final text would outline a schedule for tariff reductions and the removal of other barriers over time. It would need to be sensitive to individual nation needs for restructuring their economies.

Mr Emerson acknowledged the difficulties incorporating nations such as Japan, with its heavily-protected industry sectors, but said he was optimistic that membership of the bloc would continue to swell.

“That’s the ultimate goal here,” he said. “So we start with nine and keep expanding.”

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/gilla ... z1dcb9DwMk

A U.S.-backed plan to forge a Pacific free trade bloc got a big boost Sunday when leaders of Canada and Mexico joined Japan in expressing support for a deal that has received a cool reception from rising power China.

Earlier Sunday, President Barack Obama said "we're not going to be able to put our folks back to work" unless the Asia-Pacific region is successful as an engine for the world.

"We consider it a top priority," Obama said of the region where his administration is pouring in time and political capital to expand exports and business ties.

The president spoke as he dove into a day of summit diplomacy, proudly using his home state of Hawaii as the American foothold to the Pacific. He gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose nations span from Chile to China and account for roughly half the world's trade and economic output.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45279703/ns ... ific-work/

dales wrote:No,no,no,no,no....the USA is already trillions of dollars in the crapper and for our economy to be tied with the likes of Australia sends shivers up my spine!

Australians, generally speaking, like Americans and favour the alliance. The alliance has had majority public support since it was signed 60 years ago, even during the darkest days of the invasions of Vietnam and Iraq.

But two new polls suggest the public has little appetite for intensifying it. The Herald-Nielsen poll reported in today's paper asked whether respondents thought the US-Australia alliance relationship was too close, not close enough, or about right. The answer is that 71 per cent of adults think it's about right; 24 per cent say it is too close; a scant 3 per cent say it is not close enough.

Another survey by Essential Media presented Australians with a list of nine countries and asked the same question. The country that topped the list as the one Australians would like to draw closer to was China at 35 per cent. The US was eighth at 18 per cent.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... z1djzV1dDH

The country that topped the list as the one Australians would like to draw closer to was China at 35 per cent.

Lord Jim wrote:

The country that topped the list as the one Australians would like to draw closer to was China at 35 per cent.

If I were an Australian, I would find it very disturbing that more than a third of my countrymen want to "draw closer" to a saber rattling totalitarian thugocracy; one of the two or three most odious regimes on the planet.

Long Run wrote:Well, if this means we can find marmite on any grocery shelf, then I'm changing my views on free trade.

keld feldspar wrote:Chile and Peru=strategic minerals

Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, & Brunei encircle a very large and largely untapped source of oil.

The Anzacs who knows...

Singapore is large regional financial center.

keld feldspar wrote:

Singapore is large regional financial center.

True, outside of Tokyo and Hong Kong it's one of the largest.

Which will probably be helpful when the PRC decides to take over Taiwan.

Which was not included BTW, as well as South Korea besides Japan...