Video: The Trans-Pacific Partnership - What's at Stake for the Western Hemisphere?

Keynote Speaker:

• Gregory Meeks, U.S. Representative (D-NY); Co-Chair, Friends of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Caucus

Panel Discussion:

• Luis Miguel Castilla, Ambassador of Peru; former Minister of Economy and Finance
• Miriam Sapiro, Principal, Summit Strategies and Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
• Kurt Tong, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State
• Indira Lakshmanan, Senior Reporter, Bloomberg News (moderator)

"[The Trans-Pacific Partnership] is a force for positive changes across the board," said U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks. Experts agreed the trade deal could represent great social developments along with economic growth. "It will make more robust, in general, the business environment in [Peru], the rule of law, the institutions—which is really what's at stake for us more than the actual trade benefits," said Ambassador of Peru Luis Miguel Castilla. 

Though free-trade agreements exist among many of the 12 countries involved in the deal, the TPP would take free trade to the next level, said the State Department's Kurt Tong, with provisions on labor, climate change, intellectual property, and e-commerce. "And very importantly, TPP is directly addressing the question on how to get small and medium businesses participating more in international trade," said Tong.