Assessing the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Innovations in Trading Rules

The Peterson Institute released volume 2 of the PIIE Briefing, Assessing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, on March 28, 2016. The new volume, Innovations in Trading Rules, analyzes trading rules and standards that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has crafted in important areas such as intellectual property rights, state-owned enterprises, digital trade, labor, and environment. It comes close on the heels of Volume 1—released in February 2016—which focused on major market access and sectoral issues in the TPP. The PIIE Briefings are part of the Institute's major commitment to give an independent and comprehensive analysis of the TPP as a basis for fair public debate and reasoned review in Congress.

The meeting featured presentations by Institute Senior Fellow Jeffrey J. Schott, who provided an overview of the TPP, and Nonresident Senior Fellow Robert Z. Lawrence, who discussed the adjustment and income distribution impacts of the agreement. Research Associate Cathleen Cimino-Isaacs gave her insights on labor standards, and Nonresident Senior Fellow Lee Branstetter presented on intellectual property rights and digital trade.

Schott, who coedited the volume with Cimino-Isaacs, has been with the Peterson Institute since 1983 and leads the Institute's research in international trade policy and bilateral and regional free trade agreements. His 2001 study Free Trade between Korea and the United States? laid the groundwork for the KORUS FTA. Lawrence is also the Albert L. Williams Professor of Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was a member of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers in 1999. Cimino-Isaacs has been with the Peterson Institute since August 2012. Her research focuses on international trade policy, free trade agreement negotiations, and the future of the World Trade Organization. Branstetter is also professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He served as senior economist for international trade and investment at the Council of Economic Advisers in 2011–12.