Kirk Says TPP Talks Progress Better Than Expected in Dallas
There was better-than-expected progress on the latest round of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The 12th-round meeting of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam concluded May 16 in Dallas. Negotiators said the round further narrowed differences in the text and the teams can now see a clear path forward toward conclusion of most of the more than 20 chapters of the agreement, the USTR office said, as a handful of TPP negotiating groups continue to meet in Texas for the remainder of the week.
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During the eleven-day Dallas negotiating round, the TPP countries closed discussions on the U.S.-backed small- and medium-sized enterprises provisions, and moved toward closure on the other new cross-cutting issues of regulatory coherence, deepening of regional supply linkages between TPP countries, and promoting development, USTR said.
USTR said the nine TPP countries continued work on developing ambitious tariff packages that would provide access to each other’s industrial goods, agricultural, and textiles markets. They also discussed specific commitments on liberalization of their respective services and government procurement markets.
USTR said Kirk will meet with his TPP counterparts on the margins of the APEC Trade ministers meeting in Kazan, Russia, in early June to discuss progress achieved to date and to agree on a plan forward. The next round of TPP negotiations is scheduled for July 2-10 in San Diego.
U.S. business groups are pressing for quick progress on TPP, seeing an opportunity to open up overseas markets (see ITT Online Archives [Ref.12050922]), but some of the provisions, including regarding textiles, remain controversial (see ITT Online Archives 12050318).