[CTC] TPP Talks Likely To Stretch To Weekend Despite Auto Progress, Levin To Travel To Atlanta

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Inside US Trade
TPP Talks Likely To Stretch To Weekend Despite Auto Progress, Levin To Travel To Atlanta
Posted: October 01, 2015

ATLANTA -- The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial taking place here is now considered increasingly likely to last beyond Friday (Oct. 2) due to continuing differences on dairy market access and monopoly protections for biologic drugs, despite key parties being close to a deal on the automotive rules of origin.

Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters Thursday (Oct. 1) that the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Japan are “very close” on autos, but said they are waiting for progress in other areas such as biologics before reaching a final agreement.

In a related development, Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) will travel to the Atlanta ministerial Thursday night.

Guajardo said everything is linked in the negotiation right now because there are very few issues pending. As a result, Mexico is waiting for developments in many other areas before finally trying to close in its areas of interest, Guajardo said. He added that “today will be decisive” in terms of determining whether TPP countries can reach an agreement here.

Guajardo's assessment lines up with that of other sources, who expect the issues to be sequenced in the order of autos, dairy and finally biologics. Biologics will likely be the last to be resolved because some countries like Australia and New Zealand are expected to link their willingness to compromise in that area on the market access gains they can get on dairy.

Given these difficulties, two sources briefed on the negotiations said they expected the ministerial meeting to extend beyond Oct. 2, although another source declined to rule out a conclusion on Oct. 1. One of these sources said the state of play would become clearer after a plenary ministerial session scheduled for roughly 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

One potential complication to extending the ministerial is that the Malaysian trade minister is supposed to leave on Thursday night, sources said. The ministerial was originally scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 1, and was already extended by one day to Oct. 2.

U.S. trade officials acknowledged the possibility of another extension in a conference call briefing with business representatives on Thursday morning, according to informed sources. These officials said the U.S. is willing to extend the talks here if progress is being made, but that they could not confirm an extension.

The officials said autos, dairy and sugar market access are still open issues, but did not mention biologics, according to these sources. The officials who conducted the briefing were Luis Jimenez, counselor to the U.S. Trade Representative, and Elizabeth Kelley, assistant USTR for private-sector engagement.

They also confirmed that USTR has tabled language on a tobacco carve-out and said the U.S. is working to find a middle ground with TPP countries who want to completely carve out tobacco from the agreement and do so in a way that does not discriminate against farmers, sources said. The U.S. proposal would give countries the option of preventing tobacco companies from challenging anti-tobacco regulations under the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.

According to a congressional source, USTR tabled the proposal without consulting members of the House Agriculture Committee. Some members of the committee were poised Thursday to express their objections to the way the TPP negotiations are developing in terms of tobacco, as well as dairy and rice, the source said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. sugar industry has signaled it is comfortable with a U.S. proposal to Australia on sugar that would increase its level of market access from 87,000 metric tons currently to roughly 150,000 metric tons total.

Australia, Peru and Chile still seem be taking a tough line on biologics, unwilling to compromise on U.S. demands for a data exclusivity term of eight or more years. Peru and Chile are drawing the line at five years, and sources said the final decision will be made by the leaders of these countries.

Australia, meanwhile, has tried to signal flexibility by saying its current domestic framework effectively provides for at least six years of market exclusivity for biologics. This includes the five years of data exclusivity provided under Australian law, plus an additional 1-2 years for regulatory approval of the biosimilar and the listing of the drug for reimbursement on the national health care plan.

USTR Michael Froman held bilateral meetings on IP throughout the day Thursday and has also been in touch with pharmaceutical company executives during the talks here.

In a related development, John Wilson, chairman of New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra, has arrived here to push for an acceptable outcome on dairy market access with the U.S., Canada and Japan.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20151001/dc754b88/attachment.htm>