Cargo Business Newswire

Monday, September 28, 2015

Top Story

U.S. to host meeting this week in effort to wrap up TPP

The U.S. has called ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Pacific trade deal for a meeting Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 to finish the pact, a cornerstone of the U.S. administration's engagement with Asia.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership seeks to cut trade barriers and set common standards for 40 percent of the world economy and would be a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama.

The U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement that ministers would meet in Atlanta. Chief negotiators from countries including Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Brunei will meet from Sept. 26-29.

"Trade ministers and negotiators last met in July and have been making good progress toward resolving the limited number of outstanding issues," USTR said in a statement.

The last ministerial talks, in Hawaii, stumbled over dairy trade, monopoly periods for next-generation, biologic drugs and rules of origin for autos.

Officials close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that two days of talks on the threshold for local content in auto trade between the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico had made progress, and they aimed to reach a final deal this week.

For more of the Reuters story: www.reuters.com