Revised TPP on track to be signed by 11 countries in March

The revised TPP is on track to finally be signed by 11 countries in Chile next month after a meeting of officials in Tokyo.

The breakthrough comes a year after US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal.

The objections by Canada which prevented leaders signing the deal in Vietnam in November have now been eased, Japan TPP Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in Tokyo yesterday.

The date of the signing is set for March 8, the >Wall St Journal reported, but the countries' ministers have to confirm that.

New Zealand Trade Minister David Parker is en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.The TPP has been renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and member countries will be Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, Canada and Mexico.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was a no-show at a leaders' signing meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, in November, citing an issue around exemptions for cultural industries.

Overnight, speaking at the Davos forum, Trudeau hailed the agreement as a progressive deal which met Canada's objectives.

The deal was launched at Apec in 2008 including the United States but talks did not begin until 2010. Japan, Canada and Mexico joined later.

National has pledged to support the deal, which will assure the Labour-led Government of the numbers to support legislative changes.

New Zealand First has opposed the TPP in the past but has not yet reached a position on the revised CPTPP.

Labour went from promoting the deal in Government - Phil Goff was Trade Minister in 2008 when it was launched - to opposing it and back to supporting it.

It had Labour's five bottom lines: retaining the Government's right to regulate in the public interest without being successfully sued; preserving Pharmac; the right to act under the Treaty of Waitangi; sufficient tariff reductions; and the right to ban house sales to foreign-based investors.

All but the ban on house sales were met under the old TPP but the new Government has introduced legislation which will ban sales of existing houses to foreign-based investors which will be passed before March 8.

Labour has had concerns about Investor State Dispute Settlement rules which sets up an arbitration system to deal with investor grievances against grossly unfair treatment by governments.

Its concerns about ISDS was not a bottom line for Labour before the election, although after it New Zealand negotiated changes which have limited the circumstances in which ISDS can be applied.

Under the TPP12 - negotiated when US was in the TPP - it was possible that Government could be sued under ISDS provisions for screening decisions made under the Overseas Investment Act.

Under negotiations that took place under the new Government, that has been removed as it has the potential to be sued by investors who have won Government contracts.

The ISDS provisions will also be reviewed in three years which would be another chance for New Zealand to challenge the existence of ISDS clauses.