In preparing for the 2nd round of Vietnam – EU FTA (EVFTA), the Ministry of Finance has conducted a public consultation from the business community on the plan to open goods market under this important agreement. On January 13th, 2013, VCCI submitted a Recommendation on Vietnam’s first tariff offer in EVFTA to the Ministry of Finance. The Recommendation emphasized:

Negotiation on services and investment market opening (negotiation on Crossborder Trade in Services and Investment Chapters) in TPP were conducted upon the ‘negative list” approach (i.e. TPP member countries shall commit to fully open their investment and service markets to investors/service providers from TPP partners except for sectors clearly listed in the non-conforming measures portfolio – hereafter referred to as NCM portfolio).

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe successfully stared down opposition from the domestic farm lobby and his own ruling party to take Japan into the TPP negotiations. The other half of the equation — gaining the consent of TPP negotiating countries to Japan’s entry — was sealed at the recent APEC ministerial meeting in Indonesia.

Japan has said it wants to join the talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement currently being negotiated among 11 countries. The agreement is aimed at fostering closer ties and boosting trade in goods and services between member countries. There have been protests in Japan against the pact, amid fears that it may hurt sectors such as farming. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that joining the group, which includes the US, is key to reviving Japan's economy.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s statement of his country’s willingness to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations is good for the U.S., Japan and the TPP. It follows former Japanese Prime Minister Noda’s announcement at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) in 2011 of Japan’s interest in the TPP negotiations and almost two years of discussions between the Japanese government and the other TPP parties on their expectations should Japan join the trade agreement.

THE 16th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations ended here yesterday with chief negotiators of the 11 participating countries noting the progress made in the working groups on regulatory coherence, telecommunications, customs and development.

The most successful (and controversial) basis for investors’ challenges of government measures under U.S. trade and investment agreements is alleged violations of “fair and equitable treatment” (FET). Fully 74 percent of “successful” investor claims under U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) –17 awards—have found FET violations.

Tokyo and Washington have agreed on exemptions for the auto industry in a mooted Pacific-wide free trade pact, as Japan readies to announce its entry into negotiations, reports said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK, 4 MARCH 2013 — As closed-door talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement resume in Singapore this week, international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on the U.S. government to end its stall tactics and revise its proposals for what otherwise promises to be the most harmful trade deal ever for access to medicines in developing countries.

Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement to exacerbate Vietnam’s access to medicines crisisThe United States is again pursuing an important free trade agreement that will lock in high drug prices out of poor people’s reach – this time across the Asia-Pacific region, warns international agency Oxfam.