China, the TPP and Intellectual Property

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may yet turn out to be the agreement that most transforms national regulatory systems, perhaps even more so than the Uruguay Round (19861994) that delivered the World Trade Organization (WTO) and agreements such as the TRIPS Agreement. Much depends on how soon China joins the TPP. There are two immediate objections to my opening paragraph. It assumes that the TPP will come into operation and that China is planning to join. A text of the TPP has been signed by twelve parties (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam), but each of these parties has to shepherd this text through its respective domestic treaty-making processes. The TPP does not need the approval of all its signatories to come into force. Six or more signatories making up at least 85 % of the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the original signatories would be enough to give the TPP legal force. The US with its 18 trillion dollar GDP does have to be part of the six.