This paper aims at presenting an overview on TPP, and estimating opportunities and challenges to Vietnamese apparel industry when exporting its output to the USA in the future as influenced by the TPP. | 96 | Ngô Thị Hải Xuân | 96 - 107 The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Opportunities and Challenges to Vietnam’s Apparel Exported to the US Market NGÔ THỊ HẢI XUÂN Master of Arts, of Economics HCMC Email: nthxuan@ ABSTRACT The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is negotiated among eleven countries from three continents: Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the USA and Vietnam. It is considered as a 21st century trade agreement because it deals with various fields, from trade in goods and services to intellectual property, labor and environmental issues. TPP therefore offers both opportunities and challenges to Vietnamese economy, especially opportunity to export goods to member markets, including the US one - a potential market for various goods from Vietnam, such as apparel, footwear and aquatic products, etc. This paper aims at presenting an overview on TPP, and estimating opportunities and challenges to Vietnamese apparel industry when exporting its output to the USA in the future as influenced by the TPP. Keywords: agreement, TPP, export, Vietnam’s apparel, US market. JED April 2013 | 97 1. AN OVERVIEW While the Doha Round showed no end in sight after 12 years and negotiations seemed to end in failure, the birth of TPP is an important contribution to a greater effort to remove trade barriers than any existing FTA and it will help promote the world trade. Reuters says that if ratified, TPP will cover a market that is some 40% larger than the EU. Its governing scope will be broader in comparison with all existing bilateral and multilateral FTAs. TPP is considered a trade agreement of the 21 st century and a new development in quality of commitment. It not only supports liberation of trade in goods and services and investment but also imposes strict standards on such issues as environment, labor and intellectual property. Moreover, TPP .
