After reaching agreement with 11 countries on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations a month ago, the U.S. government on Thursday released a nearly-final version of the pact, including 30 chapters, market access schedules and side letters.

This new information will help stakeholders fully understand the scope and impact of the new agreement and starts the formal process for its Congressional approval.

With the text now public, President Barack Obama also formally notified Congress of his plan to sign the TPP pact. According to the requirements of the trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation passed earlier this year, the Administration is required to give Congress 90 days’ notice to review the agreement before it is signed. After Presidential signature is in place and implementing legislation is introduced, Congress can take up to 90 legislative days to review and vote on the agreement.

The agreement provides increased market access for U.S. grains and ethanol by either elimination or phase out of nearly all tariffs and binding existing tariffs that are zero. By doing so, it also eliminates the existing preferential tariff treatment grain exports between existing TPP member countries – for instance, between Australia and Vietnam – because of previous bilateral and regional trade agreements.

On the regulatory side, TPP expands on the existing World Trade Organization sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement by ensuring that SPS measures are science-based and transparent. This should lead to improvements in the food safety and animal plant health regulatory systems of other TPP countries so they better align with U.S. systems. Importantly, the agreement provides a new rapid response mechanism for seeking quick resolution of shipments detained for SPS reasons.

Importantly, TPP marks the first time that agricultural biotechnology is covered in a bilateral or regional U.S. trade agreement. In doing so, the agreement includes provisions on agricultural biotechnology that commit TPP countries to foster transparency in their decision-making processes; to work together on situations of low-level presence; and to promote timely authorization of biotech products. The TPP agreement also creates a working group to address matters related to trade in agricultural biotechnology products.

Separately, the TPP governments released a joint declaration on currency manipulation that contains a commitment by parties not devalue their currency for competitive purposes, as well as transparency requirements.

The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) participated in the TPP negotiations on behalf of the U.S. feed grains industries and applauded their completion last month.

More about the impact TPP could have on American agriculture is available here.