At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) in November 2011, the leaders of the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam announced the broad outlines of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which the parties hope to complete in 2012. If enacted, the TPP would eliminate 11,000 tariff lines, and with 26 chapters under negotiation, potentially it could serve as a template for future trade pact among the APEC states. At the same venue, the leaders of Japan, Canada, and Mexico announced that they would seek consultations with partner countries with a view towards joining the negotiations. The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) was initially conceived in 2003 by Singapore, New Zealand, and Chile as a path to trade liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region. Brunei joined negotiations in 2005, and the TPP came into force in 2006. In March 2008, the United States joined the negotiations to conclude the investment and financial services provisions. The United States already has Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with TPP members Singapore and Chile and with TPP negotiating partners Australia and Peru. President Bush notified Congress of his intention to negotiate with the existing TPP members on September 22, 2008, and with other potential members, Australia, Peru, and Vietnam, on December 30, 2008. This group of eight countries has conducted three rounds of negotiations in 2010. Malaysia was accepted as the ninth negotiating partner in October 2010, and the nine conducted a fourth round of negotiations in December 2010 in New Zealand. On November 14, 2009, President Obama committed the United States to engage with the TPP countries "with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based membership and the high standards worthy of a 21 st century trade agreement." President Obama also stated in his November 2009 Tokyo speech that the growth of multilateral organizations can advance the security and prosperity of this region. I know that the United States has been disengaged from these organizations in recent years. So let me be clear: those days have passed. As an Asia-Pacific nation, the United States expects to be involved in the discussions that shape the future of this region and to participate fully in appropriate organizations as they are established and evolve. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk formally notified Congress of the Administration's intention to enter into negotiations with the TPP countries on December 14, 2009. That notification set off a 90-day timeline under the 2002 trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation, now expired, for congressional consultations prior to the beginning of negotiations. TPP negotiating partners concluded four rounds of negotiations in 2010: Melbourne in March, San Francisco in June, Brunei in October, and Auckland in December. In Brunei, members voted to approve the inclusion of Malaysia as a negotiating partner. Initial market access offers were exchanged in January 2011 and five sessions have been held since—Santiago, Chile, in February, Singapore in April, Hanoi, Vietnam, in June, Chicago in September, and Lima, Peru, in October. The negotiating partners announced a framework for the agreement in time for the 2011 APEC Ministerial in Honolulu, Hawaii, November 8-13. Analysts, observers, and decision makers generally believe that the inclusion of the United States could act as a catalyst for other Asia-Pacific states to join. In this way, the TPP is viewed as a potential building block to a larger Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). This move is significant in that it will likely be seen as a U.S. policy response to the rapidly increasing economic and strategic linkages among Asian states, some of which have excluded the United States and the Americas in recent years. At the first negotiating session, New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser speculated that the United States would use the TPP "as the primary vehicle for putting the U.S. into the game of Asia-Pacific integration." He added that the value-added of the TPP for the United States would be to expand to other countries "so it can only make sense in terms of the world's number one economic superpower if this is indeed a building block for something larger." Some observers believe the TPP membership will expand U.S. trade with Asia while strengthening U.S. ties with the region. The United States remains a leading trade partner for nearly all Asian states. Despite this, the relative importance of the United States as a trading partner for many Asian states is declining. Fear among some U.S. policy and trade analysts that the United States was running the risk of being marginalized by not responding to the proliferation of trade agreements that emerged in Asia in recent years appears to have been a key factor behind decisions to more fully engage Asian regional architectures including the TPP. By engaging in the TPP, the United States is changing this dynamic, both by seeking to join this new trading bloc and by shaping it to be consistent with already-existing comprehensive U.S. FTAs. The TPP negotiations may become the signature U.S. trade policy under President Obama. While the United States continues to engage with its trading partners in the World Trade Organization over the ongoing Doha Round negotiations, agreement does not appear to be within reach. Also due to various difficulties surrounding each of the pending FTAs with Colombia, Panama, and Korea, the Administration has not yet chosen to bring them to Congress for consideration under trade promotion authority. Given that the United States has comprehensive FTAs with four of the potential TPP parties, negotiation of a TPP agreement may present the new Administration with the means to pursue a fresh trade strategy unencumbered by present trade controversies. However, other trade analysts view the increasing web of bilateral and regional trade agreements with suspicion. Critics assert that the emphasis on regional and bilateral negotiations undermines the World Trade Organization (WTO) and increases the risk of trade diversion. Trade diversion occurs when the existence of lower tariffs under a trade agreement causes trade to be diverted away from a more efficient producer outside the trading bloc to a producer inside the bloc. What also results from the plethora of negotiated FTAs is, according to one economist, "a 'spaghetti bowl' of multiple tariffs depending on the source of a product and, in turn, a flood of rules of origin to determine which source is to be assigned to a product." As the United States entered into exploratory discussions to join Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore in the TPP, then Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Daniel Sullivan stated his view that the TPP will likely expand its membership and "could provide as one possible foundation for, and build momentum towards, a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific." Sullivan also described the agreement as supporting U.S. interests in the areas of "intellectual property rights, standards, transparency, labor rights, and the environment." It is envisaged that the TPP will add members in successive tranches. On November 20, 2008, Australia announced that it would participate in the TPP negotiations. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is now Australia's foreign minister in the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, called for an Asia-Pacific community that would include the United States and have a broad mandate that would include political, security, economic, and global issues such as climate change. Former President Bush's notification to Congress of December 30, 2008, indicated that Australia, Peru, and Vietnam would also be potential negotiating partners. This incremental approach to construct a comprehensive free trade agreement may make negotiations for the entry of additional members more manageable. It is likely that Congress may wish to consider or to examine the entry of future members. Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore all expressed their support for the inclusion of the United States in the TPP as well as their desire that this will act as a catalyst for further expansion of the TPP. Chile is a relatively isolated trade-dependent nation that is looking to Asia to expand its trade opportunities. Chile views the TPP as a way to help it navigate its course in an era of increased globalization and as an instrument for Chile to try to gain access to Asian markets and to ensure that it is not isolated outside international trading arrangements in Asia. New Zealand, another trade-dependent country, supports liberalized trade through the WTO process but is also seeking alternative comprehensive free trade relationships in both bilateral and regional forums. New Zealand views the TPP as a way to add some momentum to trade liberalization among Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries. New Zealand also favors the continued engagement of the United States in the region. In this way, it has strategic as well as economic reasons for seeking to include the United States in the TPP. New Zealand has long sought an FTA with the United States and hopes that its advanced country status and free trade bona fides will assist it in a difficult environment for trade expansion. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke stated, "I believe that to [U.S.] Democrats, New Zealand offers very few problems because we are very keen on environment and labor agreements as part of an overall approach to FTAs." U.S. membership in the TPP would place New Zealand on an equal economic footing with other TPP members that have FTAs with the United States. New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser welcomed President Obama's announcement that the United States intends to proceed with the TPP. Singapore also generally shares New Zealand's desire to keep the United States strategically and economically engaged in the Asia-Pacific region. Singapore has stated that it favors linking Asia and the Americas as opposed to creating an Asian-only block. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated on November 15, 2009, that "all of us welcomed very much the announcement of the U.S. yesterday to engage with the TPP." The potential participation of Vietnam in the negotiations may prove more controversial.