A more detailed summary of policy issues was also released through the office. The grueling work required to cinch this mega trade deal should not come as a surprise, however, given the sheer complexity of the negotiation agenda and the wide differences in the makeup of the participating countries. Leader Tom Mulcair, said that his party won’t be “bound to any agreement” reached as TPP talks continue to Atlanta if elected on October 19.
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The 12 countries will cut trade barriers and set common standards for a region stretching from Vietnam to Canada.
Lawmakers in other TPP countries must also approve the deal, which would reduce or eliminate tariffs on nearly 18,000 categories of goods like machinery, chemicals and food. It sets precedents for future agreements, including any involving China and its state-owned-enterprises.
Mintz believes Canadian firms are ready to take advantage of deals like the TPP and the country’s trade agreement with Europe, which has yet to be fully implemented. Orrin Hatch, the powerful chairman of the Senate finance committee, have urged the administration to hold the line on intellectual property protections, including for biologic drugs. “We made a firm commitment to defend and preserve Canada’s system of supply management, and we have accomplished that”, said Harper. It can’t amend the agreement.
To pass Congress, the deal will need strong Republican support and a minimum of Democratic defections.
Opponents of the deal, including labor unions, environmental groups and liberal Democrats, have pledged to mount a final campaign to block the accord on Capitol Hill.
In the midst of a tight three-way race, Canada’s Conservative prime minister eked out a huge victory in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on Monday – managing to safeguard the country’s highly protected dairy industry. After a last-ditch wrangle between the US and Australia on pharma protections, the trade deal won backing Monday from its 12 member nations.
But the TPP deal taking shape would also give Japan’s auto industry, led by Toyota Motor, a freer hand to source parts from Asia, including from plants outside the TPP-zone like China, on vehicles sold in North America. “Nothing that we have heard indicates negotiators sufficiently addressed these issues”, she said in a statement.
Andrew Robb, Australia’s trade minister, said yesterday the group hit last-minute snags over next-generation pharmaceuticals, and the Canadian dairy industry.
Another target for critics was drug companies’ efforts to protect their pharmaceutical patents. Obama is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. As it is, the deal can’t go to a vote before Congress until early next year.
The TPP started in 2006 as an expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, or P4, which was made up of Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand.
“I am disappointed but not surprised by the decision to move forward on the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that will hurt consumers and cost American jobs”, Sanders said in a statement. The way that rule is implemented means that just over half of a vehicle needs to be manufactured locally. It has been credited with driving a boom in auto-related investment in Mexico.
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“This is one of the most challenging issues in the negotiations”, US trade rep Michael Froman said about biologics (as quoted by The Guardian). “And all the signs point to the TPP posing a major threat to good-paying jobs in Canada”, Jerry Dias, the national president of Canada’s largest private sector, said.
