Kerry invites Russia, China to join TPP on condition of raising country standards
MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Washington is not against Russia joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the U.S. Secretary of State has said.
Speaking in an interview with the Mir television channel, John Kerry said that the U.S. is inviting people to join various initiatives such as the TPP.
He said that the U.S. invites China, Russia and other countries that would like to join, provided they agree to raise their standards and live according to high standards, by protecting people and cooperating openly, transparently and responsibly.
On October 5 representatives of the U.S. and eleven nations in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) reached a final agreement over the TPP Agreement.
The aim of signing the TPP Agreement is to create a free trade area with the APR involving 12 countries: Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S., Chile and Japan. It is predicted to cover approximately 40% of global trade.
Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described as a dangerous trend the creation of closed integration structures such as the TPP and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
"Both have been declared as closed-door associations to which countries chosen by the European Union in the case of the Transatlantic Partnership and the Americans in the case of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have been individually invited. No one else is invited and besides the negotiations are secretive in both cases," he said at the time.
"Neither the general public of the relevant countries nor big companies to be directly influenced by the prospective agreements are informed about" these negotiations, he said.
"We regard this as an undesirable trend, which is even dangerous and destructive as it may damage the universal multilateral trade system," Lavrov said.