The Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP, is not strictly a trade and investment deal. Of course, TPP is a strategic bargain and not just a political economy arrangement. More importantly though, it is ultimately a broadly gauged bargain about critical rules of the market. These include rules, as examples, for information technology, Intellectual Property, and the environment. As international trade deals increasingly become entangled with the domestic regulation of the economy, although they always were, the treaty implications for market rules must be considered - what the rules are, how they will be adjudicated, and who makes them. A central question raised by TPP is, then, whether we want critical marketplace rules to be determined and adjudicated through treaty or by more transparent domestic political processes.
Prepared for the Munk School Conference “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Options for Canada and the World.”