TPP talks stalled over tariff elimination

Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations remain stalled over five topics including the key issue of market access or tariff elimination, negotiation sources said Tuesday.

One market access proposal under discussion calls for all parties to agree on the removal of tariffs on all products before moratoriums are set up on the removal of tariffs for certain products of special concern to TPP participants, they said.

One of the sources said it was likely that some of the decisions would be subjected to political decisions in the final phase.

The other four problematic issues are intellectual property rights, environmental problems, labor and electronic commerce, the sources said.

The 11 TPP negotiation participants including the United States, Australia and Malaysia plan to broadly agree on the TPP free trade agreement by October and sign the pact by the end of this year.

But the stalemate over the five topics and Japan's imminent participation in the talks are expected to make it difficult for the negotiating parties to meet the schedule, the sources said.

Negotiations have ended on five of the 29 planned chapters -- trade facilitation, standard unification, telecommunications, development, small and medium-sized enterprises -- and have effectively been completed on nine others, one of the sources said.

Japan is set to join the negotiations on July 23 amidst the current round of talks that started Monday in Kota Kinabalu, eastern Malaysia, and that will last until July 25.

July 16, 2013

Source: Kyodo