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.
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.
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