Negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement continued earlier this month for the 11 participating countries, including the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and Canada and Mexico who joined the talks for the first time. Reports from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative stated that with most chapters of the agreement “far along,” participants agreed to work between now and the next round, set for March 4-13 in Singapore, in order “to address the handful of issues still open” and to “intensify their efforts on the chapters where the volume of remaining work is substantial.”
There is still skepticism as to whether participants can conclude a TPP agreement by the October 2013 deadline, when the annual meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will be held. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said negotiators have only “done the low hanging fruit” thus far and that “there are still a lot of big issues left,” including intellectual property rights, state-owned enterprises, rules of origin, textiles, agriculture, the environment, investment, dispute resolution, and government procurement.
Ambassador Kirk said that the United States “badly wants this” and will push hard to conclude the TPP talks by the end of next year, although “it will be very difficult to close.” “It’s got to meet our test of being a high-standard, next-generation trade agreement.”
