The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): In Brief

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) among 12 Asia-Pacific countries, with both economic and strategic significance for the United States. If approved, it would be the largest FTA in which the United States participates. The 12 countries announced the conclusion of the TPP negotiations on October 5, 2015, after several years of ongoing talks. The President released the text of the agreement and notified Congress of his intent to sign on November 5, 2015. Congress would need to pass implementing legislation for a final TPP agreement to enter into force for the United States. Such legislation would be eligible to receive expedited legislative consideration under the recent grant of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), P.L. 114-26, if Congress determines the Administration has advanced the TPA negotiating objectives, and met various notification and consultation requirements. TPP negotiating parties include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. Through the TPP, the participating countries seek to liberalize trade and investment and establish new rules and disciplines in the region beyond what exists in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The FTA is envisioned as a living agreement that will be open to future members and may become a vehicle to advance a wider Asia-Pacific free trade area. It is a U.S. policy response to the rapidly increasing economic and strategic linkages among Asian-Pacific nations and has become the economic centerpiece of the Administration’s “rebalance” to the region. The TPP has slowly evolved from a more limited agreement among four countries concluded in 2006 into the current 12-country FTA agreement, with the United States joining the negotiations in 2008. Japan, the most recent country to participate, joined the negotiations in 2013. This significantly increased the potential economic significance of the agreement to the United States, because Japan is the largest economy and trading partner without an existing U.S. FTA among TPP negotiating partners (thus having greater scope for trade liberalization with the United States). The United States already has FTAs with 6 of the 11 other countries participating. Malaysia and Vietnam also stand out among the TPP countries without existing U.S. FTAs, given the rapid growth in U.S. trade with the two nations over the past three decades and substantial presence of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that will be affected by the TPP’s SOE provisions. Views on the potential impact of the agreement vary. Proponents argue that the TPP has the opportunity to boost economic growth and jobs through expanded trade and investment opportunities with negotiating partners that currently make up 37% of total U.S. goods and services trade, involves writing new trade rules and disciplines, and deepening U.S. trade and investment integration in what many see as the world’s most economically vibrant region. The agreement would eventually eliminate all tariffs on manufactured products and most agricultural goods. It also includes new trade disciplines on issues such as digital trade barriers, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and regulatory coherence, among other provisions. Opponents voice concerns over potential job loss and competition in import-sensitive industries, and how a TPP agreement might limit U.S. ability to regulate in areas such as health, food safety, and the environment, among other concerns. The Obama Administration, joined by many analysts as well as many policymakers in the region, has argued that the strategic value of a potential TPP agreement parallels its economic value, contending that the agreement would strengthen U.S. allies and partners and reaffirm U.S. economic leadership in the region. The President has repeatedly highlighted the importance of maintaining U.S. leadership in crafting global trade rules, notably with reference to potentially alternative Chinese initiatives. China is not a party to the TPP. Others argue that past trade pacts have had a limited impact on broad foreign policy dynamics

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Negotiations and Issues for Congress

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a potential free trade agreement (FTA) among 12, and perhaps more, countries (Figure 1). The United States and 11 other countries o f the Asia-Pacific region—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam—are negotiating the text of the FTA. With over 20 chapters under negotiation, the TPP partners envision the agreement to be “comprehensive and high-standard,” in that they seek to eliminate tariffs and nontariff barriers to trade in goods, services, and agriculture, and to establish or expand rules on a wide range of issues including intellectual property rights, foreign direct investment, and other trade-related issues. They also strive to create a “21st-century agreement” that addresses new and cross-cutting issues presented by an increasingly globalized economy. The TPP draws congressional interest on a number of fronts. Congress would have to approve implementing legislation for U.S. commitments under the agreement to enter into force. In addition, under long-established executive-legislative practice, the Administration notifies and consults with congressional leaders, before, during, and after trade agreements have been negotiated. Furthermore, the TPP will likely affect a range of sectors and regions of the U.S. economy of direct interest to Members of Congress and could influence the shape and path of U.S. trade policy for the foreseeable future. This report examines the issues related to the proposed TPP, the state and substance of the negotiations (to the degree that the information is publicly available), the specific areas under negotiation, the policy and economic contexts in which the TPP would fit, and the issues for Congress that the TPP presents. The report will be revised and updated as events warrant

Heavy Quark Production at HERA

Heavy flavour production is one of the key components of the HERA II physics programme. While most of the results presented use leptons or the reconstruction of charmed mesons to identify heavy flavour production, both the H1 and ZEUS experiments now have working microvertex detectors that are being used more and more. In this talk I will summarise a selection of the recent results obtained by the two collaborations.Comment: 10 pages, 18 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH2008), 22-28 June 2008, University of South Carolina, Columbi

Green's function based unparameterised multi-dimensional kernel density and likelihood ratio estimator

This paper introduces a probability density estimator based on Green's function identities. A density model is constructed under the sole assumption that the probability density is differentiable. The method is implemented as a binary likelihood estimator for classification purposes, so issues such as mis-modeling and overtraining are also discussed. The identity behind the density estimator can be interpreted as a real-valued, non-scalar kernel method which is able to reconstruct differentiable density functions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. JPCS accepted it as a proceedings to the ACAT worksho

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Negotiations and Issues for Congress

[Excerpt] The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a potential free trade agreement (FTA) among 11, and perhaps more, countries. The United States and 10 other countries of the Asia-Pacific region— Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam—are negotiating the text of the FTA. Canada and Mexico participated for the first time in the Auckland round of negotiations in December 2012, and Japan recently announced it would seek to participate in the negotiations. With 29 chapters under negotiation, the TPP partners envision the agreement to be “comprehensive and high-standard,” in that they seek to eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, services, and agriculture, and to establish rules on a wide range of issues including foreign direct investment and other economic activities. They also strive to create a “21st-century agreement” that addresses new and cross-cutting issues presented by an increasingly globalized economy. The TPP draws congressional interest on a number of fronts. Congress would have to approve implementing legislation for U.S. commitments under the agreement to enter into force. In addition, under long-established executive-legislative practice, the Administration notifies and consults with congressional leaders, before, during, and after trade agreements have been negotiated. Furthermore, the TPP will likely affect a range of sectors and regions of the U.S. economy of direct interest to Members of Congress and could influence the shape and path of U.S. trade policy for the foreseeable future. This report examines the issues related to the proposed TPP, the state and substance of the negotiations (to the degree that the information is publically available), the specific areas under negotiation, the policy and economic contexts in which the TPP would fit, and the issues for Congress that the TPP presents. The report will be revised and updated as events warrant

The Effects Of Different Amino Acid Concentrations, With Or Without Chromium Supplementation, On The Performance And Yield Of Commercial Broiler Chickens Fed Two Different Feeding Programs.

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate performance parameters and meat yield of commercial broiler chickens fed diets with different amino acid concentrations, with or without chromium supplementation, and delivered through two different feeding programs over 54 days. The experimental study was completed as a randomized-block design with 4,800, Ross 708 X Ross 708 commercial broiler chickens, picked at random, and evenly divided into six treatment groups (800 birds per group). Treatments 1 and 4 where placed under feeding program (FP1). Treatments 2, 3, 5, and 6 where placed under a different feeding program (FP2). Three different feed formulations were used, treatments 1 and 4 received formulation (A), treatments 2 and 5 received formulation (B), and treatments 3 and 6 received formulation (C). The treatments 1, 2, and 3 did not receive chromium (NC), while treatments 4, 5, and 6 did receive chromium (C). These birds were reared in 96, 5’X10’ (50 ft2) floor pens, at a stocking density of 1.00 ft2/bird (50 birds per pen). Throughout the duration of the trial bird performance was measured. Average body weight, feed conversion ratio, feed consumed, and percent mortality was collected at the change of each feed phase. From the results of this study there was no significant effect on broiler performance from the supplementation of chromium, feed formulation, and feeding program. Although, the results on Table 14 from the yield study shows that treatment 2 was significantly different from treatments 1, 3, and 4 in front half carcass weight, however, was not significantly different from treatments 5 and 6. Table 14 results also show treatment 2 having significant differences from treatments 1 and 4 in breast meat yield, however was not significantly different from treatments 3, 5, and 6. However, there is a possibility that these areas of significance in the yield study could be false positives found in the data of this single trial. Additional studies should be conducted to further the assumption if there is an actual significant difference between the treatments

Spherical GEMs for parallax-free detectors

We developed a method to make GEM foils with a spherical geometry. Tests of this procedure and with the resulting spherical \textsc{gem}s are presented. Together with a spherical drift electrode, a spherical conversion gap can be formed. This would eliminate the parallax error for detection of x-rays, neutrons or UV photons when a gaseous converter is used. This parallax error limits the spatial resolution at wide scattering angles. The method is inexpensive and flexible towards possible changes in the design. We show advanced plans to make a prototype of an entirely spherical triple-GEM detector, including a spherical readout structure. This detector will have a superior position resolution, also at wide angles, and a high rate capability. A completely spherical gaseous detector has never been made before.Comment: Contribution to the 2009 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Orlando, Florid