[CTC] Final TPP ministerial this month in Atlanta

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/final-round-of-tpp-talks-set-for-end-of-september/article26384370/

Final push for Pacific Rim pact set for end of September

The Globe and Mail

By Steven Chase

September 16, 2015

Twelve countries including Canada are preparing to try and wrap up a
massive Pacific Rim trade deal shortly and a final round of negotiations is
now set for Atlanta, Georgia near the end of this month, a Canadian
government official says.

Chief negotiators for each country will start talks September 26 with the
aim of finalizing a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal – and trade ministers
are expected to join them in the middle of the following week, possibly
September 30, the official says.

This drive for a deal comes in the middle of the Canadian election campaign
when Ottawa is being run in caretaker mode until a new government is
elected. But the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic support arm of the
Prime Minister’s Office, released guidelines in August that justify Trade
Minister Ed Fast’s presence at the talks, saying “the failure to
participate in ongoing negotiations during the caretaker period could
negatively impact Canada’s interests.”

A late July effort to finalize a deal among TPP partners hit a wall after
Canada and Mexico balked at domestic content rules for vehicle imports
agreed to by Washington and Tokyo that could hit the NAFTA partners’ auto
sectors hard.

Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Japan are meeting in San Francisco next week
to try to resolve their deadlock over domestic content rules for autos and
auto parts. Under existing NAFTA rules, a car can be sold in Canada, the
United States or Mexico without facing tariffs as long as 62.5 per cent of
it originates in one or more of these three countries.

But Japan has proposed – and the United States has provisionally agreed –
that the rule for Trans-Pacific partner countries in a proposed TPP trade
zone should be that a car with as little as 45-per-cent domestic content
can be sold without tariffs.

This same arrangement between Washington and Tokyo would allow the
duty-free importation of auto parts with as little as 30-per-cent domestic
content.

U.S President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident the
Trans-Pacific Partnership accord could be wrapped up this year and that he
expected trade ministers from all countries. He noted however that approval
by the U.S. Congress could be challenging.

“I’m confident that we can get it done, and I believe we can get it done
this year,” Obama told a group of corporate executives in Washington.

Still, he added, it will be up to Congress to ratify the pact.

“The politics around trade are tough,” Obama said.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which could supplant the NAFTA deal in some
respects, has been billed as the biggest free-trade deal in history and one
that Prime Minster Stephen Harper has warned Canada could not afford to
pass up. It would lower trade barriers between countries comprising 40 per
cent of annual global economic output.

Rick Roth, spokesman for Mr. Fast, Canada’s trade minister, said Ottawa is
adamant a deal must benefit all sectors including the auto industry.

“Our goal has always been to secure an ambitious outcome that would benefit
all sectors of our economy, across all regions of our country. We look
forward to continuing to pursue that objective,” Mr. Roth said.

“Canada’s position remains that any outcome must protect and respect the
integrated structure of the automotive industry to ensure the interests of
Canadian automakers and parts makers are well served.”

He said Ottawa is staying in close touch with industry representatives
including the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association “to ensure Canada
secures an outcome that enables Canadian producers to remain competitive.”

With files from Reuters

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
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