The Phantom of the TPP: The Impact of the TPP on International Trade Negotiations

Abstract

The U.S. President Donald J. Trump decided to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on January 23, 2017, thus ending the collective TPP-12 enterprise that had begun more than eight years ago. However, this did not put an end to the impact that the TPP would have on ongoing and future trade negotiations. The TPP is already being used as a template in other trade and investment agreements. This note will show the same by analysing the realms of investment law and patent standards post-TPP. This phenomenon gives developing countries a direction into how some future negotiations of the developed world will be framed. In turn, this hindsight should allow them to either support or collectively oppose certain standards.