Impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Textile and Apparel Trade in the Pacific Rim: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach

Textile and apparel (T&A) sector is a major issue in the ongoing Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiation which involves the United States and 8 other Pacific Rim countries by the end of 2011 (Platzer, 2012). Although the significant implication of TPP on its member countries’ macroeconomic welfare has been evaluated in numerous studies (Capling & Ravenhill, 2011; Schott, Kotschwar, & Muir 2013), how TPP might potentially affect the T&A sector has seldom been discussed. To fulfill the research gap, this study intends to quantify the effect of the implementation of TPP on T&A trade flows within the Pacific Rim, which includes all 9 TPP members (by 2010) plus China, another key T&A player in the region