Now a Trade Partnership with Africa?

A few days ago, the United States reached agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with eleven other nations (see list in tables below). Here is how the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) describes the TPP on its web page:

President Obama’s trade agenda is dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. That’s why we are negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 21st century trade agreement that will boost U.S. economic growth, support American jobs, and grow Made-in-America exports to some of the most dynamic and fastest growing countries in the world.

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How Big Should Brisbane Grow?

KATHERINE FEENEY writes in the BRISBANE TIMES:

From a ‘big country town’ to the second-fastest-growing region in Australia:  how big is too big for Brisbane?

According to estimates used to draft the latest South  East Queensland Regional Plan, substantial growth is expected to  see the greater region grow to house 4.4 million people by 2031.

In the plan, due for review in 2014, that population is spread over 11  regional and city councils including the Gold and Sunshine coasts, and requires  754,000 additional homes to have been built between 2006 and 2031 to accommodate  the increase.

The latest data from the Australian  Bureau of Statistics shows the population of the Greater Brisbane  Region (which excludes the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast) was 2.15 million  people at July 2011, a figure nearly half the state’s population of 4.47 million  people. READ MORE.