USTR Says Progress Made During Second Round of TPP Negotiations
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that the second round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ended in San Francisco, CA on June 18, 2010 with TPP negotiators making “significant, positive progress” during the talks.
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(The TPP is a multilateral free trade agreement that currently includes Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore. However, the U.S. and others -- Australia, Peru, and Vietnam -- have announced their intent to join and expand the TPP. The negotiations were conducted among these eight countries. TPP negotiations are expected to extend into 2011.)
Discussions Focused on Four Key Goals
Discussions on the high-standard, 21st century, Asia-Pacific regional trade agreement focused on four key goals:
- determining the architecture for market access negotiations,
- deciding the relationship between the TPP and existing FTAs among the negotiating partners;
- addressing “horizontal” issues such as small business priorities, regulatory coherence, and other issues that reflect the way businesses operate and workers interact in the 21st century; and
- proceeding toward the tabling of text on all chapters of the agreement in the third negotiating round, scheduled for October in Brunei.
USTR to Brief Congress on Details of the Talks
USTR will brief the staffs of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees, as well as other key congressional stakeholders, during the week of June 21, 2010 on the details of the talks.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 06/16/10 news, 10061520, for BP summary of the readout from Day 1 of the negotiations.
See ITT’s Online Archives or 06/21/10 news, 10061827, for BP summary of the readout from Days 2-4 of the negotiations.)