The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) signing was announced overnight following the most recent round of negotiations at Atlanta, Georgia in the US over the past week.

While the deal is yet to be formally ratified through the Australian parliament and other jurisdictions, the overnight announcement concludes five years of tense talks between the 12 Pacific Rim countries like Japan, Canada and the US.

Mr Robb said the TPP was the biggest trade deal of its kind in 20 years and would now eliminate about 98 per cent of tariffs on agricultural exports.

He said the TPP also represented a “great deal for our farmers” and would combine with other economic opportunities to expand the national economy on the global stage, in areas like services and manufactured goods. 

The deal will establish a more seamless trade and investment environment with common rules around trade activity, across the 12 TPP countries which represent around 40 per cent of global GDP, he said.

“Combined with our landmark trade deals with Korea, Japan and China, the TPP forms part of the government’s microeconomic reform strategy to support the diversification of our economy in this critical post-mining boom phase,” he said.

“It will slash barriers to Australian goods exports, services and investment and eliminate 98 per cent of all tariffs across everything from beef, dairy, wine, sugar, rice, horticulture and seafood through to manufactured goods, resources and energy.”

Sugar was a primary concern during the final negotiations but the end result will now see Australian sugar expand market access into the US for the first time in 20 years; effectively doubling Australia’s entitlements, Mr Robb said.

Australia will now be granted an additional quota of 65,000 tonnes base allocation and 23 per cent share of additional allocations into the United States market, which is triple the previous amount.