Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership
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The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (SEP), also known as the P4 agreement, is a multilateral free trade agreement between the countries of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore which was signed on 3 June 2005 and came into force on 28 May 2006.
The Trans-Pacific SEP was previously known as the Pacific Three Closer Economic Partnership (P3-CEP) with its negotiations first launched at the 2002 APEC Leaders Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and Prime Ministers Goh Chok Tong of Singapore and Helen Clark of New Zealand. Brunei first took part as a full negotiating party in the fifth round of talks in April 2005.
Despite cultural and geographical differences, the four member countries share certain similar attributes: all are relatively small countries (no more than 16m habitants) and are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
The aim of the agreement is to eliminate 90 percent of all tariffs between member countries by 1 January 2006 and reduce all trade tariffs to zero by 2015. It is a comprehensive agreement covering all the mainstays of an FTA, including trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, trade in services, intellectual property, government procurement and competition policy.
The agreement has the potential to grow to include other nations as the agreement includes an accession clause. This was particularly apparent from the fact that negotiations originally included just three countries (Chile, New Zealand and Singapore) and that Brunei was subsequently included into the agreement. New Zealand's Associate Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton has indicated that some economies of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have shown interest in it.
