September 20, 2014
– Negotiators for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement have achieved important progress after 10 days of intensive talks ending in Hanoi last week.
According to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi on September 17, 2014, the TPP chief negotiators of Vietnam, the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Singapore made important progress on State-owned enterprises, transparency and anti-corruption, and labor.
The statement cited Barbara Weisel, U.S. chief negotiator for TPP, as saying the U.S. and the other 11 TPP participating countries shared a commitment to resolving the remaining issues as quickly as possible, including both on the text and market access packages.
To advance the work, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will work bilaterally with many TPP counterparts in the coming weeks. He will meet Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh in Washington D.C. this week and have other meetings with TPP ministers.
According to Weisel, the next round of TPP talks has not been determined, but the U.S. sees the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in China, this November as an opportunity to make progress on outstanding issues.
TPP is expected to create a free-trade zone with 800 million people, 30% of global trade and nearly 40% of the world’s economic output.
(The Saigon Times)