Kerry Says Trans-Pacific Trade Pact About Jobs, Growth
By Merle David Kellerhals Jr. | Staff Writer | 08 October 2013
Secretary Kerry and U.S. Trade Representative Froman seated, talking (AP Images)
Secretary of State Kerry talks briefly with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman during meetings of the Trans-Pacific Partnership at APEC in Bali on October 8.
Washington — Secretary of State John Kerry says a proposed 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership seeks to generate economic growth and fresh jobs by sparking a wave of investment and business development across the Asia-Pacific region.
“At a time when we, all of us, seek strong and sustainable growth, TPP is creating a race to the top, not to the bottom,” Kerry said. The fact that the trade and investment pact seeks the highest standards over any previous international trade agreement will be good for businesses, workers, economics, stability and relations among nations, he said.
“It’s why we are working to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations by the end of this year,” Kerry added at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum’s chief executives’ summit in Bali October 7.
In a joint statement October 8 following a leaders’ meeting, the 12 nations negotiating the TPP agreement — Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore,
Vietnam and the United States — announced that they are on track to complete TPP negotiations. TPP ministers have been working in smaller groups in recent months on the legal texts and annexes on access to their respective goods, services, investment, financial services, government procurement and temporary entry markets.
“We have agreed that negotiators should now proceed to resolve all outstanding issues with the objective of completing this year a comprehensive and balanced, regional agreement,” the joint statement says.
The meeting with the leaders of TPP nations was held October 8 on the sidelines of the 21-member APEC summit being held on the Indonesian island of Bali. Kerry represented President Obama at the leaders’ meetings because the president remained in Washington to work on a budget impasse with the U.S. Congress.
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told journalists in Bali that trade ministers have been working on TPP and are strongly committed to concluding negotiations on schedule.
“In Brunei in August, and now in Bali, trade ministers have been charting a path forward on outstanding issues, particularly state-owned enterprises, intellectual property rights, environment and market access, in order to move the negotiations toward completion,” Froman said.
The 12-nation group seeking a new trade partnership says it wants the “deepest and broadest possible liberalization of trade and investment” to ensure the greatest benefits. They said the partnership is seen as setting pioneering standards for new trade disciplines and as a model for future trade agreements. APEC leaders have set a goal of achieving a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.
President Obama launched the TPP on the margins of the 2010 APEC leaders’ meeting in Yokohama, Japan, and then again during the 2011 APEC meeting in Honolulu hosted by the United States, a senior administration official told journalists during a briefing October 8. The goal of the TPP is to create a comprehensive, high-standard trade agreement that brings new disciplines into the global trading system that reflects the current challenges of the international trading system, he said.
There have been 19 rounds of talks, several ministerial meetings, several leaders’ meetings and dozens of smaller meetings with chief negotiators, trade ministers and the TPP leaders, the official said. He added that the partnership nations are not going to accept a poor agreement just to meet a deadline, but the collective view is that while the partnership is an ambitious undertaking, it is also a doable one.
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Kerry Says Trans-Pacific Trade Pact About Jobs, Growth | IIP Digital
