Quotation for Today, Monday 16 November

The partnership – TPP for short – comprises New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and Brunei. As the Wall Street Journal also noted, their combined GDPs do not amount to that of Belgium.

The upshot is that Obama is seen as doing something for free trade but not at a pace or level which disturbs tariff- or subsidy-protected American producers of goods and service too much. Thus does the President hope to steer a middle course between the free trade camp and those opposed to any further lifting of trade barriers.

Making the understatement of the year, John Key described all this as “very good news”. Initially, the objective is to have an expanded TPP which would include the United States, Australia, Vietnam and Peru.

John Armstrong in the NZ Herald

There is a potential sting in the tail of Obama’s comments, he is engaging not endorsing. We might see this move into an endless negotiation phase and/or come out with an FTA not really worth very much at all.