Washington — The United States has made important progress in enhancing global trade through the latest round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, says U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
According to a USTR announcement, the trade partnership made considerable progress through the talks, “giving a strong boost to their efforts to develop a high-standard, 21st-century trade agreement that will support the creation and retention of jobs and promote economic growth.”
The trade partnership is becoming a critical element for “unlocking the Asia-Pacific region to U.S. business,” Kirk said in congressional testimony April 5.
The TPP, created in 2006 by Singapore, New Zealand and Chile, aims to promote regionwide economic cooperation. Officials from the nine current TPP member economies — Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States — held the sixth round of negotiations in late March.
In addition to making headway toward the key goal of developing the text of the group’s agreement, the announcement said, each country also began to show the flexibility needed to successfully conclude negotiations.
“As a result, the teams were able to narrow the gaps in their positions on a wide range of issues across the more than 25 chapters of the agreement,” the USTR announcement said.
To maximize progress, the TPP countries extended the length of the discussions in Singapore, and some U.S. negotiators also traveled to Malaysia and Vietnam before and after the formal talks to advance market-access negotiations.
Before the start of negotiations, TPP countries held a seminar with more than 50 involved parties from business, civil society and academic groups. U.S. representatives from organizations representing a wide range of interests made presentations.
The USTR announcement said countries had good exchanges on initial U.S. proposals on “cross-cutting issues of competitiveness and facilitating business, how to promote the participation of small- and medium-sized businesses in international trade” and promoting development.
The seventh round of talks will be held during the week of June 20 in Vietnam. As in Singapore, this round will be extended to give negotiators the opportunity to further advance their work. The TPP members are seeking to make as much progress as possible ahead of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in November in Honolulu.