Breakthrough on TPP deal
TPP deal could be announced today after Atlanta talks extended a day
A Trans Pacific Partnership deal could be announced as soon as today
if negotiators clear the final hurdles, including the biggest remaining
one involving dairy import limits.
Prime Minister John Key left
New York yesterday but Trade Minister Tim Groser remains in Atlanta at
the talks, which were pushed back a day - a sign the agreement is
verging on a breakthrough.
"I'm pretty optimistic it will come
together [this weekend] - 80-20," said Alan Wolff, a former US
negotiator who now leads the American National Foreign Trade Council, a
commercial association.
Trade ministers from 12 countries are
negotiating the controversial pact, which would cut trade barriers and
set common standards for 40 per cent of the world's economy and be the
biggest free-trade deal in a generation.
Talks began in 2010 but
strong public opposition to the deal here centre on concerns about its
impact, such as making pharmaceuticals more expensive.
Thousands of people demonstrated in August, many angry that detail of the deal has been kept secret.
The last round of talks in Hawaii in July ended with three issues outstanding: vehicles, dairy and patents on pharmaceuticals.
