Trans-pacific deal: Trade pact deadline looms as talks open
US President Barack Obama has hailed the TPP as a centerpiece of renewed US engagement in Asia.
SINGAPORE:
Trade ministers from the United States and 11 other countries opened talks in an attempt to meet a US deadline to forge a trans-pacific trade pact before the end of the year.
US President Barack Obama has hailed the TPP as a centerpiece of renewed US engagement in Asia, saying it contains market-opening commitments that go beyond those made in other free-trade accords. Negotiators are ironing out kinks over a provision that allows companies in any of the TPP countries to bid for government procurement contracts.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2013.
Trade ministers from the United States and 11 other countries opened talks in an attempt to meet a US deadline to forge a trans-pacific trade pact before the end of the year.
However, analysts said an agreement on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was unlikely to be reached during the four-day meeting, and activists slammed the US for its “manipulative” tactics in a bid to get a deal done. The TPP is being negotiated by 12 nations -- Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam -- that together make up 40 percent of the global economy.
US President Barack Obama has hailed the TPP as a centerpiece of renewed US engagement in Asia, saying it contains market-opening commitments that go beyond those made in other free-trade accords. Negotiators are ironing out kinks over a provision that allows companies in any of the TPP countries to bid for government procurement contracts.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2013.