Twelve countries aiming to conclude a Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement will hold a ministerial meeting in Singapore on Feb. 22-25 , it has been learned.

The focus of the meeting will be whether the countries will be able to effectively conclude the talks by compromising in such contentious areas as tariff elimination, restrictions on preferential treatment for state-run enterprises and protection of intellectual property rights.

Japan’s minister for TPP affairs, Akira Amari, is set to take part in the meeting, informed sources said.

The participating nations are putting great value on the upcoming meeting, with the approach of the U.S. midterm election in November. “It will be an extremely important occasion before the U.S. midterm election campaign gets into full swing,” Amari said.

Singapore, the host country, is expected to announce the schedule for the ministerial meeting early this week at the earliest.

Ahead of the ministerial meeting, chief TPP negotiators from the 12 countries will hold talks beginning Feb. 17 with the aim of narrowing down issues that will require a political decision at the ministerial meeting.

One of the keys to success of the ministerial meeting will be the course of negotiations between Japan and the United States, mainly about how to deal with U.S. calls for the removal of tariffs on five sensitive farm product categories, such as rice, that Japan is eager to protect.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed at a meeting in Washington on Friday to accelerate the bilateral talks to facilitate an early conclusion of the TPP negotiations. But it is uncertain whether the two countries will be able to find common ground.

Source: Jiji Press

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