Although two-day talks between negotiators from the four nations on auto trade did not reach a final agreement, ministers were readying for meetings in Atlanta next week for a final push to get the deal over the finish line.
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Japan, the United States, Mexico and Canada are moving closer to a deal on rules for the automotive industry in a landmark Pacific trade deal, a leading obstacle to agreement on the 12-nation pact, officials briefed on the talks said on Wednesday’.
“You might say “well how can NZ hold out”?” he said.
Canada’s auto parts manufacturers, who employ more than 80,000 in Canada, are calling on Ottawa to secure a 50-per-cent content rule for cars and parts.
“Landing zones are clear right across the text in all but three areas”, said Groser, citing market access for automobiles and dairy, and patent extensions for biologic pharmaceuticals the outstanding areas.
“The Harper government has shown that it is willing to sacrifice good auto jobs to get a trade deal”, Unifor National President Jerry Dias said.
With the Canadian general election less than a month away, the timing for reaching a TPP deal has grown increasingly hard, particularly given domestic concerns in Canada over lost manufacturing jobs.
Since then, the 2016 election season has started weighing on American political support for the deal. A successful conclusion to the talks, of course, could be a political boon for the Tories.
U.S. President Barack Obama has been pushing for a broad agreement by early next year.
Some officials have suggested, however, that the lack of an official timetable is not an insurmountable problem for the trade talks.
He acknowledged that comments from Prime Minister John Key on Monday, that whatever deal was achieved would be “at least the very best we can do”, had been interpreted as a sign of a poor deal on dairy in the offing, but told BusinessDesk “we’re in anything other than capitulation mode”. “And I said this even in the run-up to getting [Trade Promotion Authority]”. We have already seen in North America how the geography of auto production can experience tectonic shifts in response to trade policy and other determinants (with the migration of investment to Mexico in the wake of the NAFTA and Mexico’s attainment of critical mass in this sector).
However, he noted, one way to correct the mistake of past trade deals is to “raise the bar” in new ones, an argument that he says he is making with legislators on both sides of the aisle. There are alternatives: “state capitalist, mercantilist models based on forced technology transfer, localisation, state champions, and generalised protectionism”, he noted, warning against models that do not recognise linkages between trade and labour, environment, and other concerns.
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Chief negotiators for the USA and 11 other countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnershipare scheduled to continue their talks in Atlanta next week followed by a meeting of the nations’ trade ministers.
