On October 5, 2015, The United States and eleven other Pacific Rim nations finalized their negotiations and agreed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional trade agreement combining forty percent of the global economy. According to this news report, the TPP is designed to eliminate trade barriers and phase out tariffs and includes provisions establishing uniform rules on intellectual property.  It also contains provisions for the mutual recognition of regulations and patent protection for pharmaceuticals. According to another report, trade ministers who negotiated the deal described the TPP as an overhaul of the investor-state dispute settlement provisions found in previous agreements, which will also bar tobacco companies from using this system to strike down anti-tobacco legislation in participating countries.