Introduction
With the completion of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, economists and policymakers have turned their attention toward the trade agreement’s implications for Southeast Asian economies. Four countries in the region – Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam ­– are signatories of the deal, and, until this point, discussion on both the domestic and international fronts has focused on how each of them will benefit from greater openness to the trade of goods. However, the TPP also includes provisions to liberalize entry into each of their respective service sectors, a component of the agreement that has garnered little attention and that will uniquely impact these countries’ economies. Because liberalization in the services sector has traditionally lagged behind that of the goods sector, the passage of the TPP has the potential to herald a new era of greater openness in Southeast Asia.
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