The US needs to lead the way in the TPP
19/12/2013 56
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TRADE ministers of the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries last week completed a successful meeting in Singapore. They made "substantial" progress by identifying the "potential landing zones" in a majority of outstanding areas during the meeting.
United States Trade Representative Michael Froman - who was likened to a "hard taskmaster" by his Australian counterpart Andrew Robb - led the negotiations round the clock in different formats.
Although TPP countries will not meet their self-imposed year-end deadline for concluding the pact, ministers were able to reach landing zones in some difficult areas such as intellectual property rights, state-owned enterprises, investment and financial services.
Ahead of the four-day meeting, US President Barack Obama wrote a letter to the heads of the other 11 participating TPP nations urging his counterparts to give adequate mandate to their trade ministers to conclude the talks. Mr Obama acknowledged members' sensitivities and the difficult issues that came up during the Salt Lake City talks but emphasised that they should stick to the goals as set out in the Honolulu meeting in 2011.
Source: Business Times SG
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