San Antonio business leaders and trade experts said the now-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement should be beneficial for San Antonio and South Texas companies.

But uncertainties remain about the terms of the agreement and when or whether Congress might act to approve U.S. participation in the sweeping 12-nation TPP framework.

“We’re excited that we have reached the finality,” said San Antonio Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Richard Perez.

“Now is the time to learn what is in the agreement. We think it will be a great vehicle to have fairness in our trading with our partners,” Perez said.

Citing a visit to chamber offices last year by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, Perez said, “We’re all about free trade. We don’t foresee changing our stance and our support.”

“It’s pretty good for us,” said Doug Smith, assistant director of the University of Texas at San Antonio International Trade Center.

Smith said that 45 percent of U.S. trade already goes to the 11 other nations that negotiated the trade agreement. But in Texas, the percentage has ranged between 53 to 54 percent in the last few years.

“Texas is running about 8 percent ahead of the United States,” Smith said.

Of the 11 other nations, the United States already has trade agreements with seven of them, Smith said. The four nations that do not have trade pacts with the United States are Japan, Brunei, Vietnam and New Zealand.

Of those, any reductions and liberalization of trade rules and tariffs with Japan will have the most effect for Texas companies, Smith said.

“It should be good for the auto industry,” Smith said.

Other nations, such as Taiwan and the Philippines, could join TPP after it enacted, which could expand the trade pact’s benefits, including raising the U.S. percentage of TPP trade past 50 percent, Smith said.

Setting standards and rules for products, such as auto safety and environmental emissions, could be another effect of TPP, Smith said. If TPP is not enacted, “China would give the rules to the region,” he said.

“TPP can have a similar effect to NAFTA,” said Mario Lozoya, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas Inc. director of government relations and external affairs, referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement enacted in 1994 between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

“TPP is an avenue for countries to engage in trade. It will be up to them to decide on the parameters. All of this is speculation right now. There are no deals yet, but it’s an avenue for trade deals,” Lozoya said. “We have suppliers (for the San Antonio Toyota assembly plant) that do business with others in the partnership.”

José Martinez, CEO and president of the Free Trade Alliance San Antonio, said TPP could expand and advance what NAFTA achieved.

“I haven’t seen (TPP). No one has read the document. But NAFTA served its purpose, and TPP could be something to improve NAFTA. It levels the playing field, especially with Japan, which is a protectionist country. I think TPP will be a good treaty.”

But whether TPP can win congressional approval is another matter, Martinez said. “I don’t see anything until early spring or until after a (federal) budget is passed and signed. The Republicans are not in the mood to give the president anything. The president is going to have to give the Republicans a lot to get approval. I don’t think the Democrats can win the day for the president.”

According to a fact sheet on Texas trade with TPP nations issued by the Business Roundtable in 2013, Texas jobs supported by 2011 trade levels with TPP countries numbered 1.16 million.

Companies in the other 11 nations in the agreement had more than 1,100 investments in Texas.

Texas exported about $132.6 billion of goods to six countries in the TPP agreement in 2012 — Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Singapore. The top exports were petroleum and coal products, motor vehicles parts and computer equipment.

John Dewey, an ex-officio San Antonio Manufacturers Association director, said in May that San Antonio’s transportation manufacturing — covering aerospace, motor vehicles and heavy industrial machinery — will benefit the most from the tariffs and other trade barriers that are expected to fall under TPP.

Companies such as the Toyota assembly plant, the Caterpillar plant in Seguin, and Boeing and Lockheed Martin — both at Port San Antonio — all would be able to better reach Asian customers under TPP, Dewey said.

A Brookings Institution export report in May revealed that motor vehicle sales of $1.22 billion, including about 10 percent of the Toyota plant’s production, or 20,914 pickup trucks, was the city’s top export category in 2014.

dhendricks @express-news.net