[CTC] TPP Countries Mull U.S. Proposal For Currency Committee Side Deal

[Arthur Stamoulis]

IUST: TPP Countries Mull U.S. Proposal For Currency Committee Side Deal

Posted: July 29, 2015 
LAHAINA, Hawaii – Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries are discussing a U.S. proposal put forward last week for a side agreement that would set up a committee where officials from the 12 nations could discuss allegations of currency manipulation, but without recourse to binding dispute settlement, according to informed sources.

The side agreement on currency would be completely separate from a TPP deal. The talks on the currency agreement are being led by finance ministers and conducted out of capitals, with no discussions on the matter taking place at the July 28-31 ministerial meeting here, sources said.

These sources cautioned that the talks on the currency side agreement are in their early stages, with much technical work still needed.

Mexico's finance ministry gave a hint earlier this month that the currency issue was being discussed in the context of TPP. It said U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray during a July 16 meeting in Paris had discussed the TPP financial chapter, “specifically the issue of exchange rate policy.”

Over half of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 2013 separately called for the TPP and future trade agreements to include enforceable disciplines on currency manipulation. But an amendment offered to the fast-track legislation in the Senate that would have made doing so a U.S. negotiating objective was narrowly defeated by a vote of 51-48 on May 22.







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