Negotiations between New Zealand the United States and six other Pacific Rim countries to open up trade, including trade in education are continuing to progress, according to the US trade representative Ron Kirk.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a launch pad for the Obama administration’s intention to dramatically increase American exports to the Asia-Pacific and create good jobs here at home. We’re in the early stages of these talks, but our team will be reporting some significant, positive outcomes to Congress,” said Mr Kirk late last month.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) intends to extend an existing trade agreement which covers Brunei Darussalam, Chile and New Zealand, to include the United States, Australia, Peru and Vietnam. Negotiations began in March 2010. If successful it could help enable the USA’s 0 billion private higher education industry to establish businesses here in New Zealand.

In the past New Zealand has taken an approach to the trade of education that has seen it reserve the right to take measures to protect its public education (and other public services) from free trade rules.  However, public education advocates have also expressed concern in the past that agreements such as TTP tend to have clauses that require ongoing liberalisation across time, thus meaning that existing protections come under continued pressure to be amended or removed altogether.

In the USA the line between public or not-for-profit tertiary education and private-for-profit education is becoming increasingly blurred. For instance the Chronicle notes this week that as more [US] colleges dip their toes into the booming online-education business, they’re increasingly taking those steps hand-in-hand with companies like Embanet.

“For nonprofit universities trying to compete in an online market aggressively targeted by for-profit colleges, the partnerships can rapidly bring in many students and millions of dollars in new revenue. That’s becoming irresistible to an increasingly prominent set of clients. George Washington University, Boston University, and the University of Southern California, to pick just three, all work with online-service companies.”