After eight years of planning and more than five years of mind-numbing negotiations, America and 11 other Pacific Rim nations representing 37% of the global economy finally reached an agreement on the largest regional trade accord in history – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The negotiating text alone consists of 30 chapters and thousands of pages covering more than just trade.

It touches on issues concerning wildlife protection, dispute settlement, intellectual property rights for movies, union reform, online commerce, and internet openness.

Countries as diverse as Canada, America, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and Vietnam completed this ambitious 21st century pact with the goal of supercharging trade and investment in the Pacific Rim.

Tariffs on over 18,000 products will be phased out. For example:

The TPP – More Than Just Trade

Aside from eliminating tariffs, the pact is important as a geopolitical gambit to offset China’s growing heft, as well as to highlight President Obama’s much-vaunted pivot to Asia.

Now comes the daunting political challenge of getting the pact through each country’s legislature.

In America, accomplishing this in the midst of a competitive presidential campaign will be especially challenging.

It’s a straight up or down majority vote in both the Senate and the House, and the stakes and pressures are equally high.

Passing these political hurdles is necessary to phase out thousands of import tariffs, as well as other barriers to international trade, such as Japanese regulations that keep out some American-made automobiles and trucks.