On October 28, 2011, the United States and its Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
partners - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru,
Singapore, and Vietnam - concluded a ninth round of negotiations in Lima, Peru.
During this round, it was stated that negotiators had built upon progress made
in previous rounds and “pressed forward toward the goal of reaching the
broad outlines of an ambitious, jobs-focused agreement by the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ meeting in Honolulu,” from November
8.
At the meeting, it is expected that President Barack Obama and his counterparts
from the other eight TPP countries will take stock of progress to date and discuss
next steps, following the further considerable progress made during the latest
negotiations on the legal texts of the agreement, as well as on the cross-cutting
issues of small- and medium-sized enterprises, regulatory coherence, competitiveness,
and development.
With further domestic consultation on outstanding issues, the nine countries
should move toward closure of a number of chapters of the prospective agreement.
On more complex and sensitive chapters, the countries will need more time to
find convergence.
Before this round, the US put forward its new proposed text on state-owned
enterprises, on which the teams had constructive initial discussions. This text
is intended to help level the playing field for exporters by addressing distortions
to trade and competition that result from unfair advantages governments provide
to these enterprises. The US also tabled new text on labour issues, and it was
reported that the teams had a productive exchange on this issue as well.
Nevertheless, the TPP member countries continued to make steady progress on
the tariff packages they are negotiating for access to each other’s markets.
In addition to meeting collectively, the US and its partners met bilaterally
to advance discussions, and the countries now plan to prepare revised offers
based on these discussions and requests made for improvements in specific areas.
The US and other negotiating teams will return to their respective capitals
and update their governments on the specific outcomes of their work over the
nine negotiating rounds, in preparation for assessment by the nine Leaders at
the APEC meeting.
LAWANDTAX-NEWS.COM
