TPP Parties Aim to Lock Down Deal by End of Year, Says Kerry
The Obama administration is still targeting the remaining months of 2015 to seal a final Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, and TPP negotiating parties are committed to ratifying a deal, said Secretary of State John Kerry in remarks on Aug. 7. Kerry spoke in Hanoi alongside Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, who also serves as the foreign minister. TPP parties failed to lock down a deal in Maui at the end of July (see 1508030024). Kerry said TPP negotiators are still hammering out compromises to unresolved issues. “There is one or so with respect to Vietnam, and I think another couple of countries had some issues which they weren’t able to resolve in the final hours but which I am confident will be resolved in the next days,” he said (here). “And I think we are hoping very much that over the course of the next couple of months, before the end of the year, TPP can be completed.”
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Textile and apparel negotiations, which many trade supporters hope will facilitate more U.S.-Vietnamese trade, are nearly complete, experts have said since Maui (see 1508040020). Many trade critics have said Vietnam is still falling short on bringing its labor policies into compliance with TPP standards (see 1503230078). Kerry and Minh both praised recent Vietnamese efforts to improve labor policies and conditions in the country.