The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated between twelve countries in the Asia Pacific (Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States and Vietnam).

When it comes into effect, the TPP economies combined will represent roughly 40% of world trade, and make significant advances towards removal of traditional barriers to trade - such as tariffs - and pioneering provisions in intellectual property rights and foreign investment.

Given the ambitious scope of the TPP and numerous domestic hurdles, finalisation has so far proven elusive. Current challenges for negotiators include clauses relating to the dairy, textile, auto, and sugar industries.

Relatively little is known about the full content of the TPP although some information has been reputedly “leaked” via the Wikileaks platform.