| Summary/Abstract |
THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP) initiative was first launched by New Zealand, Singapore and Chile in 2003. Since the United States joined the process in 2011, this concept, significantly reformatted and with an expanded membership, has been regarded as a purely American one. It is also rightly seen as a (if not the) key element of the strategic shift of focus in U.S. foreign policy to the Asia-Pacific Region. It is also often viewed in conjunction with the conceptually symmetrical Transatlantic Partnership between the United States and the European Union. Many experts argue - with varying degrees of credibility - that the combination of these two initiatives is of central, systemic importance to the foreign-policy and foreign economic strategy of the Administration of Barack Obama.
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