TPP: Former WTO head Pascal Lamy says TPP benefits ’modest’
by Geoff Winestock
The former head of the World Trade Organisation Pascal Lamy predicts
agreement will be reached on the Trans Pacific Partnership trade talks
this weekend, but says the significance of the deal has been over-hyped.
The Frenchman who retired as WTO director in 2009 told The Australian
Financial Review on Thursday on the fringes of the Boao Forum for Asia,
that the importance for the world economy of the TPP would be
"relatively modest".
With trade ministers of 12 countries including Australia’s Andrew
Robb trying to reach a deal this weekend at talks in Hawaii on cutting
trade barriers, Mr Lamy said, "It’s probably not worth the full-blown
trumpets claiming it is the first 21st century trade agreement".
The talks were supposed to set new modern standards in trade for fair
competition between state-owned enterprises and private firms and for
protection of foreign investment, but Mr Lamy said the countries in the
TPP were so diverse and at such different levels of development that the
"lowest common denominator will not be very high".
- Pascal Lamy says the importance for the world economy of the TPP would be "relatively modest".
