Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Negotiators from 12 countries will resume negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact in Vietnam on Monday.
Ministers from the 12 nations last met in Singapore in February but failed to make much headway.
Talks have also stumbled over the impasse between Japan and the U.S. despite several high-level meetings between in the two countries since February.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last week that Japan and the United States will act in cooperation to accelerate negotiations further toward the early conclusion of TPP negotiations as a whole.
After the four-day session in Ho Chi Minh City, trade ministers will gather in Singapore again on May 20 and 21.
The U.S.-backed TPP aims to cut tariffs and set common standards on other trade issues across a dozen countries that cover almost 40% of the global economy.
Long-running differences on tariffs on imported goods, particularly between the United States and Japan, are proving difficult to overcome. Other thorny issues are intellectual property and the rules for state-owned enterprises and government procurement.
Another sticking point is whether the U.S. government will be able to establish the so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which will deny U.S. lawmakers the opportunity to amend the TPP agreement.
U.S. President Barack Obama has faced opposition from his own Democratic Party over the matter, while other participating countries are said to be worried that, without the TPA, Congress could make major changes to any deal they come up with.
The countries participating in the talks are the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile, Mexico and Peru.
© Japan Today/Reuters
5 Comments
Login to comment
nath
No meaningful progress will be made.
Cricky
Progress will be made if America and Japan are excluded.
Steve Western
I would definitely exclude Mexico, they tend to export people rather than merchandise. The developed countries, for their own good, should be working together to save their economies and jobs, rather than working for an agreement with the 3rd world countries providing little worker safely, environmental controls and paying very poor wages. The UK, Japan, balance of the EU, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada are all getting destroyed by Thialand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, and other cheap labor countries. The least we can do is to make it extremely easy to do business with each other by dropping tariffs and other protective procedures within the group. China has the worst environment on earth by virtue of coal mining, and the use of coal in their power plants, the developed countries are taking a much cleaner but more expensive approach further making it more difficult to compete price wise. If China has no desire to reduce coal use, are we not obligated to penalize them in the area of trade? Are we so addicted to cheap products that we care little about our air? And yes we all breathe China's pollution the dirty air doesn't remain over China, every person on earth shares it.
FizzBit
It's a wonderful idea, and I agree. But the multinational corporations have the politicians in their pocket. It won't happen cuz they are greedy and selfish human beings who never give a thought to anything except the next quarter.
jbirdy
These TTP and TTIP ( across the Atlantic) talks are not really about free trade but about the rules and regulations by which trade is conducted.
Already there are courts where multinational corps sue governments for billions in alleged lost profits due to change of those countrys laws. Example cases are Australia vs. Big tobacco for printing drastic warnings on every cig paket. Germany vs. an electric utility multi for phasing out nucs. Equador vs. big oil for leaving a mess after decades of drilling... 500 cases pending in courts without precedent already.
This is only one aspect of these monster TTP agendas. Somehow it seems only big corps are set to gain. The secrecy surrounding the talks is another question mark.