DATE: November 24, 2013
This evening, chief negotiators for the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries have reported significant progress after six days of intensive meetings in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Working with key subject-matter experts, the lead TPP negotiators resolved a substantial number of outstanding issues across the talks, including with regard to intellectual property, cross-border trade in services, temporary entry, environment, market access, state-owned enterprises, investment, financial services, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, government procurement, labor, e-commerce, legal issues, technical barriers to trade and rules of origin.
The work of the chief negotiators this week has significantly narrowed the number of issues to be addressed directly by the TPP Ministers at their upcoming meeting in Singapore.
Discussions among TPP negotiators will continue in the coming days to further set the stage for a productive meeting among the TPP Ministers in early December.
