After more than five years of negotiations, Monday morning 12 countries announced the successful conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement that covers nearly 40 per cent of the global economy. This deal is a significant success for the Obama administration, with potentially profound geostrategic implications. The TPP has the potential to be one of the top two foreign policy successes of the Obama administration (along with the Iran nuclear deal) and could be one of his greatest legacies. Unfortunately, the signing is merely the first step –the US president is going to have a huge challenge in getting it through Congress.

Major benefits

Bringing together 12 countries in Asia and Latin America the deal focuses on tariff reductions in some extremely sensitive areas for many of the member states, such as automobiles and agriculture, as well as addressing a number of other trade issues ranging from wildlife conservation to intellectual property issues in the pharmaceutical arena. According to the Peterson Institute in Washington, DC, by 2025 the TPP could result in annual benefits (opens in new window) of $295 billion globally.