Following 10 years of negotiations, an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was reached in early October 2015, involving the United States and 11 other countries in the region: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The TPP, which must now be reviewed by the US Congress, represents the largest international trade agreement signed in the last two decades, covering trade equivalent to 40% of the global economy. This agreement will have significant commercial implications, providing for a gradual reduction in tariff barriers, as well as new labour and environmental standards.

The European Union, and Italy, can now only hope that the TPP agreement will lead the Obama administration to focus more on the TTIP, so that European businesses may also soon benefit from a free trade agreement with the United States rather than merely being subject to recent changes in the global market.