The Trans-Pacific Partnership deal signed between 12 Pacific Rim nations in Atlanta this week is a historic pact that will step up Australia's trade links with countries representing 40 per cent of the world's economy.
The questions now are the fine details of the agreement - sector by sector - and just how long it will take to go through the approval processes in each country. 
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed the deal as a "gigantic foundation stone for our future prosperity" while business groups from the Business Council of Australia, the Financial Services Council, the Export Council of Australia and the Australian Dental Industry Association also -applauded it yesterday.
But other interest groups, including retailers, are still waiting on the details of the agreement that has a reported 30 chapters.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade estimates that the deal would eliminate 98 per cent of tariffs in the region covered by the 12 countries and on more than $9 billion of Australia's -exports.
BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the deal would lower the cost of doing business with the 11 other counties with more transparent and efficient customs procedures and make it easier for Australia to move into new export markets.
Mexico could end up being one of the new areas for more Australian trade while Australian farmers will benefit from Japan's agreement to cut tariffs on a wide range of agricultural products, -including wheat, pork, beef and chicken, and more access for Australian sugar exports to the US.
HSBC Australia chief executive Tony Cripps yesterday estimated the TPP could add about $US2.6 billion ($3.65bn) to the value of Australian agricultural exports - an increase of more than 19 per cent.
  Maybe even more significantly the deal starts to level the playing field for the services industry, -allowing more access globally for Australian companies in architectural, engineering, health care, education and financial services.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb must be applauded for his conduct of the long-running negotiations including a last-minute holdout over the section on the length of patent protection for biological drugs that could have caused political problems locally.
But while politicians in each country are quick to sell the wins of any trade deal, the balance sheet of real winners and losers from this deal is still not 100 per cent clear.
The deal will make it easier for investors from the 11 other countries to bid for Australian assets, with the threshold for Foreign Investment Review Board examination quadrupled to more than $1bn.
Australia also has succumbed to pressure from the US for its multinationals to be able to take action against the federal government through arbitration if their property is seized or if they feel they are unfairly targeted by changes in policy (tobacco companies excepted).
As several observers noted -yesterday, the benefits of free trade deals are often exaggerated by those politicians announcing them.
But the deal will see Australia further integrate with the economies of the 11 other countries, adding to the domestic pressure to make sure the local economy is as productive as possible.
While Australia's terms of trade are falling, as the Reserve Bank noted in its monthly statement yesterday, the future will go to Australian companies like Blackmores who are finding new export destinations for their products.
The TPP deal does not include China, where Blackmores has been expanding lately, but the Blackmores experience and now that of Australian food manufacturer Greens, which is selling into China, New Zealand and the US, highlights the potential for -Australian companies that are looking to new export markets for their future.
Deals like the TPP open up -potential in international markets but also subject local companies to foreign competition. The TPP will accelerate the expansion of internet commerce allowing more global players to do business here.
Some see the US pressure for the TPP as being driven by its "pivot" towards the Asia-Pacific to counter the rise of China.
Announcing the deal in Washington, US President Barack Obama underlined this: "When more than 95 per cent of our -potential customers live outside of our borders, we can't let countries like China write the rules of the global economy." The comments may help play to a xenophobic domestic audience in the US but Australia needs to take a more global approach, the TPP deal now putting added emphasis on passing our hard won free trade agreement with China in federal parliament.
Sadly the modern-day Labor Party, which once boasted of its -pioneering role in Australia-China relations, seems to be associated these days with emotional campaigns questioning details of the free trade agreement with China and the potential sale of NSW electricity assets to Chinese investors.
The TPP itself now has to -undergo many political hurdles including a noisy debate in the US congress in an election year next year and an upcoming election in Canada.
It will take some time before it is fully effective. And possibly even longer before Australian companies learn how to make it work for them. But the opportunities are there for those who are prepared to think global.The future will go to those who think and act globally while the -inward looking, the mercantilists and the globally uncompetitive will be left behind.