| The Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP)is a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries signed on 4 February 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand, after seven years of negotiation, which has not entered into force. This final agreement contains measures to lower trade barriers such as tariffs, and establish an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. Participating nations aimed at completing negotiations in 2012, but contentious issues such as agriculture, intellectual property, and services and investments prolonged negotiations. The question is why they finally reached and signed agreement in a short time, and this outcome will cause what implications and impacts toward Chinese mainland and Taiwan.Historically, the TPP is an expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership(P4), which was signed by New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and Chile in 2005, and entered into force in 2006. In January 2008, the U.S. agreed to enter into talks with the P4 members regarding trade liberalization in financial services. This paper adopts the analytic hierarchy process method to illustrate the reason why the TPP can be reached and signed rapidly by the U.S.’s force. Firstly, implementing the TPP has been one of the trade agenda goals of the Obama administration, and this agreement will become Obama’s most meaningful political label in his final years of office. Secondly, the Congress passed “ The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015â€, which is commonly known as TPA Fast-track legislation. Through the TPA, Obama could submit trade deals to Congress for an expedited vote without amendment. Thirdly, the United States has considered the TPP as the basic agreement to the proposed the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific( FTAAP). Reaching and signing the agreement before Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP), the U.S. would be ceding economic leadership to other regional power, letting them set the rules of economic engagement in the Asia-Pacific area.Facing the new strategic situation, China should keep calm and focus on the “ The One Belt and One Road†Initiative. China could take full advantage of the existing bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms to push forward the building of the Belt and Road and to promote the development of regional cooperation. Tsai Ling-wen and her party won the supreme leader’s election of Taiwan, and expressed interest in joining the TPP. It is necessary for Chinese mainland’s government to reflect and adjust the management of Taiwan policy according to the second-round transition of political parties in Taiwan. |
