CPTPP: How are the quotas granted among its members

Canada, Japan, Mexico and Vietnam provide quotas under the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The signatories to the CPTPP are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Today, the agreement has not yet entered into force for Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, and Peru.

The tariff quotas can be for the entire CPTPP or for specific countries; they are included in Appendix A of each Party’s tariff in Annex 2-D.

Some of Vietnam’s quotas are allocated from existing WTO TRQs.

Detailed disciplines on the administration of TRQs are provided in Section D of Chapter 2. They are based on Article XIII of the GATT 1994, the WTO Import Licensing Agreement and Article 2.12 (Import Licensing) of the Agreement, with additional disciplines addressing administration and eligibility; the allocation mechanism applies when access to TRQs is granted on a basis other than the order of arrival; return and reallocation of unused TRQs; and transparency (articles 2.29 to 2.32 respectively).

CPTPP

The table below provides a summary of the TRQs under the Agreement; With the exception of Vietnam, all TRQs are for agricultural products.

For Canada and Mexico, the general principle is that of in-quota tariff rates and Most Favored Nation (MFN) rates for out-of-quota imports, although non-quota rates for Canada for whey powder and butter substitutes are progressively reduced, eliminating tariffs on January 1, 2028 and January 1, 2023, respectively.

The CPTPP includes 30 chapters, with traditional disciplines such as: trade in goods, rules of origin, services, investment, among others, as well as next-generation topics such as: disciplines for state-owned companies, trade and labor, trade and the environment, intellectual property and electronic commerce.

TRQs under the Agreement