BRICS Leaders to Discuss TPP at Goa Summit

The leaders of the BRICS countries will discuss at the upcoming summit in Goa the situation regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The eighth BRICS summit will take place in Goa October 15-16.

"The US administration clearly perceives this project as part of heritage of [US President] Barack Obama. We expect further efforts so that the TPP enters into force in the conditions and the framework and the parameters which are convenient and comfortable for Washington, especially against the backdrop of the analogous agreement with the European Union… Now, when the relevance of this issue is increasing, without doubt there would be a very substantive discussion on the issue in Goa," Ryabkov said.

The TPP agreement seeks to deregulate trade among 12 signatory nations that comprise 40 percent of the world economy. They include the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Critics of the TPP agreement claim it undermines domestic companies, laws, regulations and institutions through an extra-judicial process that stacks the deck in favor of multinational corporations.

The trade deal concluded in October 2015 has yet to be ratified by the signatory countries.