SINGAPORE - Ministers negotiating the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact said Tuesday that they will miss a year end deadline to complete the deal.
“We identified potential landing zones for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said after four days of talks in Singapore, reading a joint statement from ministers and delegation heads. “We intend to meet again next month,” he said, with market-access issues yet to be resolved.
Talks on the trade pact, which would link an area with about $28 trillion in annual economic output, have faced differences over issues such as agricultural tariffs and intellectual property. Leaders in countries such as the United States, Malaysia and Japan must also deal with opposition to the pact from lawmakers at home, an obstacle that will have to be overcome when the agreement is finalized.
No new timeline has been set to reach an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact that goes beyond usual trade deals that focus on tariffs and traditional goods such as agriculture. It would establish rules for digital commerce and include environmental standards and protection for companies that compete against government-backed businesses.
“To actually close a deal then is tricky,” said Deborah Elms, head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations in Singapore, referring to the January meeting. “What is critical is that it’s very clear to the ministers what the compromises will have to be,” she said. “It’s more plausible to expect a slightly later conclusion,” such as in March or April.
“We had various bilateral talks, and of course everybody understands that there are sensitivities for each country,” said Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s deputy economy minister, speaking through a translator to reporters. Economy chief Akira Amari missed the talks after being diagnosed with early stage tongue cancer.
“We have been making necessary adjustments and coordination and deepened our discussion,” Nishimura said. The United States made progress with Japan in talks on automobiles and insurance, and still has more work to do on cars and agriculture, Froman said.
The delay in concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership complicates the Obama administration’s so-called pivot to Asia, already dogged by tensions with China over the East and South China seas. President Barack Obama sent Secretary of State John Kerry in his place on a four-nation trip to Asia in October as he dealt with a partial government shutdown at home. Obama plans to visit the region in April.
The countries negotiating the pact are the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. China, which has been excluded from Trans-Pacific Partnership, is separately moving on trade talks with countries such as South Korea, Japan and Australia.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership talks follow an accord struck by the World Trade Organization, the first multilateral agreement negotiated by the organization’s 159 member nations in its 18-year history. The pact, unveiled in Bali on Thursday, is designed to smooth commerce at borders and safeguard food security in developing nations. A successful WTO deal may add $1 trillion to the world economy, supporters among business groups have said.
“There is a line on which Japan can absolutely not compromise,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday in Tokyo of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Still, Japan’s team “will continue to put all their energies into the negotiations until the end for the sake of the national interest.”
Business, Pages 25 on 12/11/2013