The Turnbull government says the Trans-Pacific Partnership will boost growth, create jobs, raise living standards, and increase productivity for Australians.

We'll have to take its word for it.

It will be weeks, maybe months, before the public sees the text of the agreement. Its 30 chapters first have to be translated into different languages and then approved for publication.

The lack of transparency is frustrating everyone who wants to know what tangible benefits the agreement will bring.

The International Monetary Fund's managing director, Christine Lagarde, said on Tuesday she can't produce a comprehensive analysis of the deal, including its transitional effects and spillovers, until she's seen all the details.

Labor says it has reservations about the deal but will wait to see what the text says.

Australia's biggest lobby groups have been trumpeting the deal without having seen the text.

But what do we have to work with? The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has released a few facts about the agreement.

It estimates the TPP will eliminate 98 per cent of tariffs in the TPP region, and eliminate tariffs on US$8.6 billion of Australia's exports to TPP countries.

It says tariffs will be eliminated across everything from beef, dairy, wine, sugar, rice, horticulture and seafood through to manufactured goods, resources and energy.

But it won't happen immediately, most tariff reductions will be phased in over time.

Tariffs will be eliminated immediately on seafood exports to Canada and Peru, but it will take 15 years to eliminate them in Mexico's case, and 16 years in Japan's.

Tariffs on iron and steel products exported to Canada will be eliminated immediately, but it will take 10 years in Vietnam's case.

Lobbyists from all the major industries were in Atlanta, Georgia for the ministerial meeting, and they were getting regular briefings from government officials arguing on their behalf.

But not everybody won.

The deal will see an increase in market access for Australian sugar into the US for the first time in 20 years - "effectively doubling Australia's entitlements," according to Trade Minister Andrew Robb.
 
It means Australia will have an additional quota of 65,000 tonnes allocated for sugar exports to the US every year, taking the average annual exports from 107,000 tonnes to 207,421 tonnes, giving Australia equal access with Brazil, which is the world's largest sugar producer.

But Australia's sugar lobbyists were hoping for more.

One of the significant benefits of the agreement is its decision to set common international trade and investment standards between TPP countries, making it much easier to do business across the region by cutting red tape and business costs.

Australia had to give up some important things to get these deals.

Firstly, it agreed to the inclusion of a controversial investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause in the agreement that will allow foreign companies to sue Australian governments if those governments introduce laws that "harm" their investments - i.e. their profits.

Mr Robb argues that ISDS clauses are now part or every major trade agreement, and says Australia is party to 29 agreements that already have ISDS clauses.

Second, the US government was seeking an extension of monopolies on new life-saving biologic medicines from Australia's current standard of five years to eight years. Mr Robb says he did not cave into this pressure, but the US government says the agreement is that those five years are a "minimum" standard and there is an "option" to extend that monopoly by another three years.

There are positives and negatives in this deal for Australia.

But it's impossible to say what the overall impact will be until the text has been released. Only then will we be able to see how much the government expects trade to increase, how many jobs will be created and lost, and the benefits that cheaper imports will bring for Australian consumers.

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