Chelliah says APEC members have been studying how the European Union expanded its free trade area, as well as the ASEAN Australia-New Zealand trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership.

VOA: standard.2009.11.09

But there's one topic of the greatest importance that we'd like to share with you, and that is that the United States, together with the other eight countries that make up the TPP -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- have welcomed Mexico for it to join the negotiations of this initiative.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama��s Bilateral Meeting with President Calder��n of Mexico | The White House

Now finally, as Japan applies to join the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the cat is out of the bag.

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The TPP -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that I just met with the countries who are involved, we're doing some outstanding work trying to create a high-level trade agreement that could potentially be a model not just for countries in the Pacific region but for the world generally.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama at the APEC Business Summit