Leaders of 12 countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have agreed on the broad outlines of an ambitious free trade accord for promoting innovation and growth to kick-start world economies.

The TPP agreement was announced (November 12) at a meeting hosted by US President Barack Obama at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Honolulu who has made it a cornerstone of a US free-trade initiative. 

“I want to emphasize that the Asia-Pacific region is absolutely critical to America’s economic growth,” Obama told summit leaders, adding that it was a top priority for the US “because we’re not going to be able to put our folks back to work and grow our economy and expand opportunity unless the Asia-Pacific region is also successful.”

When created in 2006, the TPP numbered only four members (Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore), then there were nine and by the end of the summit 11 had agreed to join the US: Australia, Singapore, Peru, Brunei, Chile, Vietnam, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico and Canada.

Although a member of APEC, the world’s largest economy, China, did not join the TPP although President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks on the sidelines of the Honolulu conference.

The agreement announced by the TPP countries, which account for almost 40 percent of the global economy, is an attempt to inject momentum into liberalization hopes that have become bogged down after inconclusive talks by the 153-member WTO (World Trade Organization) known as the Doha round which are about to enter their 11th year with no end in sight.

“Today’s announcement is an important milestone," New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said. "It signals the broad outlines of the agreement – including progressive tariff elimination and an end point of full market access – and a strong political commitment from leaders".

“Following Japan’s decision to seek to join the TPP, this creates a real sense of momentum around negotiations. Our message to our negotiators is that we want to convert that momentum into results,” Mr English says.

TPP negotiators will meet again in early December and have been instructed to schedule further negotiating rounds for 2012.