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You can download and print the following pledge by clicking here and ask your legislators to sign it.The official signing which took place in New Zealand in February opened a 2 year process during which each of the 12 countries will need to ratify the agreement at national level, in most cases with a debate and vote at the Parliament. Therefore civil society, labour and members of the Parliament have a key role to raise awareness about the potential impacts of the TPPA agreement.

The TPPA is a far-reaching “trade deal” that was negotiated in secret and signed by 12 countries on the 5th of October 2015 after a final 5 day long marathon of negotiations in Atlanta (US) (see UNI Global Union reactive statement). The TPPA is between 12 countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the US, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore and New Zealand.  If ratified, it would cover 40% of the world’s economy and set the foundation for trade in e-commerce, financial services, property rights, medicine and much more, impacting the lives of millions of workers. 

A recent study  published by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University (USA) showed that the TPPA would generate GDP loss in the US and Japan, and employment losses in all TPPA countries with a total of 771,000 lost jobs. The loss in GDP (3.77 percent) and employment (879,000) among non-TPPA developed countries would be driven by losses in Europe, while developing country losses in GDP (5.24%) and employment (4.45 million) reflect projected losses in China and India.

For a more detailed analysis of the TPPA text, you can refer to the UNI Global Union Statement that was adopted by UNI affiliates at the World Executive Board meeting on the 11th of November 2015.