Стр. 14 - V

Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : B. Heyfets
Chief research associate, Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Financial
University under the RF Government and The State University of Management, Doctor of Science (Eco-
nomics)
ON FEBRUARY 4, 2016, in Auckland, heads of 12 Pa-
cific Rim states signed a treaty on the Trans-Pacific Part-
nership (TPP), the first trans-regional mega-partnership,
which will come into force in the next two years as soon
as at least six countries, representing about 85% of the
total GDP of the TPP, have ratified it.
Other trans-regional agreements - between the EU and
Canada and the EU and Japan, the Trans-Atlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Regional Com-
prehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and others -
are moving in the same direction.
They are expected to radically change the structure and nature of the international division of
labor and, in the final analysis, cause deep-cutting reformatting of global economy.
Officially, the TPP members spoke of the partnership as an alternative to the economic unions
functioning in the Pacific Rim (ASEAN and APEC in the first place) and pointed to their more
liberal trade conditions than those offered by the WTO and the local FTZ. In fact, the United
States is pursuing its unpublicized aim of trimming China's rising influence; it wants to remain
in control in the APR and restore the lost positions in Asia.
In the 20th century, Europe and the United States had been talking about reviving the Silk Road
yet China filled the idea with a new and highly creative conceptual and material content. Many
of the developing countries left outside the two mega-partnerships are given a chance to be in-
volved in trans-regionalization that creates real prerequisites for common economic space in Eu-
rope, Asia and Africa.
The Belt and Road project will become the "softest" and flexible partnership in which its mem-
bers will discuss the future roads of economic development to identify the triggers of possible
conflicts, remove them and unify their strategies by taking into account the economic, political
and legal practices of all members.
Trans-regionalization is a new stage of globalization that creates inter-state economic alliances
of a new type and pushes them to merging.
TRANS-REGIONALIZATION is a serious challenge for Russia. If our country fails to find
adequate responses it will be mercilessly pushed to the periphery of world economy. Formally,
its losses caused by the TPP and RCEP are negligible - not more that 0.1-0.2% of GDP until
2025 since raw material exports are less vulnerable to excessive protectionism; as for the branches
with higher value added, the barriers for them will be much higher. Russia was driven to the
New Economic Mega-Partnerships and the Global Economy