The countries at the TPP table represent 40 per cent of the world’s economy. Canada, as a trading nation and a Pacific country, needs to be there. Intellectual property, automobiles, agriculture, labour standards and the environment are just some of the big items on the table.
“These negotiations are going to establish what will become the basis of the international trading network in the Asia-Pacific,” Harper said in Quebec. “It is essential, in my view, that Canada be a part of that, that the Canadian economy be part of that.”