Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations made “substantial progress,” earlier this month but not enough to meet the longstanding, self-imposed goal of concluding an agreement by the end of 2013. Negotiators said that following additional work in the coming weeks they plan to meet again in January, although no specific date or location was stated. Nonetheless, talks could wrap up as early as March, according to some observers.
A joint press release states that TPP participants have “identified potential ‘landing zones’ for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text” and “will continue to work with flexibility to finalize these text issues as well as market access issues.” However, press reports say that two recently leaked documents show that in the run-up to this month’s talks in Singapore significant differences remained on a number of sensitive issues, including intellectual property rights, the scope of an investor-state dispute settlement provision, and disciplines on state-owned enterprises. U.S. officials said they cannot verify the “authorship or authenticity” of the documents, which include elements that are “outdated” or “totally inaccurate.”
In addition, the United States and Japan have yet to make much headway in the bilateral negotiations taking place alongside the TPP talks, including the issue of lowering Japan’s tariffs on imported agricultural products. “In our view, there has not been a proposal of sufficiently meaningful market access consistent with the goals of TPP that are comprehensive and ambitious,” a Wall Street Journal article quoted U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman as saying. A Japanese minister responded that his country cannot “give one millimeter” on this issue and that the United States should show “flexibility.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives (USTR) made available the “Statement of the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Countries,” which is available here. In addition, USTR issued a report, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Economic Benefit” available here.
