Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations Began Today in Australia
03/15/2010 - 10:31am
The eight members of the Trans Pacific Partnership began negotiations today in Melbourne, Australia. More than 200 delegates from the United States and Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam kicked off the negotiations in an opening plenary session. The countries reaffirmed their commitment to building a high quality, broad-based regional agreement. They also exchanged ideas on how to use the negotiations to build a new paradigm on trade and strengthen our strategic partnerships in the Asia Pacific region.
The teams began discussing the appropriate framework for the negotiations. The U.S. team shared initial input received from consultations with Congress and stakeholders on objectives for the TPP negotiations and discussed the input the other countries have received so far. Six negotiating groups met today, including rules of origin, agriculture, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property rights, and legal and institutional issues.
Keep checking USTR.gov throughout the week for updates on the negotiations.
Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations Update: Day Two
03/16/2010 - 11:09am
The U.S. team met on March 16 for a second day of negotiations with their Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) counterparts. The intellectual property rights, agriculture, technical barriers to trade, services and rules of origin groups concluded their initial round of discussions today and agreed on work to be completed by each delegation in advance of the next round of negotiations. The TPP negotiators also began discussions on several other issues, including telecommunications services and environment. Minister for Industry and Trade for the Australian state of Victoria, Jacinta Allan, welcomed the TPP delegates at a reception at the APEC Study Center at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, underscoring the importance of APEC work in many areas to be covered by the TPP, on which TPP members are drawing.
Keep checking USTR.gov throughout the week for updates on the negotiations.
Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations Update: Day Three
03/17/2010 - 10:17am
USTR negotiators completed their third day of Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations today. Ten negotiating groups met, including industrial goods, agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, telecommunications, financial services, customs, rules of origin, government procurement, environment, and trade capacity building. TPP negotiators agreed to draft concept papers, exchange information, and undertake other work ahead of the second TPP negotiating round in June as part of their efforts to begin shaping a framework for the negotiation. In addition, U.S. negotiators met with representatives of Australian labor unions and major business associations to hear the views of Australian civil society on trade and labor issues and to consult on Australian labor law and practices.
Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations Update: Day Four
03/18/2010 - 11:28am
U.S. negotiators completed the fourth day of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations today in Melbourne, Australia. They exchanged views with their TPP counterparts on a wide range of issues, including labor, investment, textiles and apparel, e-commerce, and competition issues, and trade capacity building. At the same time, lead negotiators held robust discussions on the cross-cutting issues that the TPP countries have agreed to consider as they seek to shape a 21st-century agreement. Among these issues are regulatory coherence, transparency, promotion of competitiveness, increasing the participation of small- and medium-sized businesses in trade, and development.
