New round of TPP ministerial meeting kicks off in Singapore

A New round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial meeting kicked off in Singapore on Saturday, which observers viewed "unlikely" to be concluded here, with main sticking points on intellectual property protection, state-owned enterprise, agricultural products, as well as the U.S. "fast track". The meeting carried on with its tradition of negotiating behind closed doors. The participants include trade ministers and representatives of 12 countries such as Singapore, the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Vietnam. Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement that prior to this meeting, chief negotiators and subject matter experts also met in Singapore from Feb. 17 to 21. The last ministerial meeting was also held in Singapore in last December. Although the United States had pushed the conclusion of the talk at that time, it still failed. But the ministers then said in a joint statement that they made "substantial progress towards completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership". "Over the course of this meeting, we identified potential ' landing zones' for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text. We will continue to work with flexibility to finalize these text issues as well as market access issues," they said. The two major powers among the participating countries, the U.S. and Japan, recently conducted several round of high-level talks, especially on their most divided areas like agricultural products and auto sector. "There have not, as far as I know, been breakthrughs yet on the U.S.-Japan portion of the agreement," said Deborah K. Elms, Head of Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade and Negotiations at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore's Nanyang Technological University during a recent interview. She also views it "quite unlikely" to conclude the talks at this round here, quoting "fast track" of the U.S. as a major problem right now. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a recent interview with a Chinese media that the participants in the TPP talks are "very close to completing it." "We ought to be able to close this year, because if we don't close this year, there is not much time left on the American political calendar to get it through Congress and settle the matter," Lee was quoted as saying. "We expect to make meaningful progress in Singapore this month, " U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said when he was heading here for the recent TPP talks. "Negotiators have been working hard and ministers have been engaging on outstanding issues since their productive meetings in December," he added. The TPP talks were initiated by Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei Darussalam in 2005, but dominated by the United States after it joined the talks in 2008. Japan joined the TPP talks last year. Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry said the TPP is " envisioned as a high-quality and comprehensive trade agreement that will go beyond tariff elimination and other traditional trade issues to address emerging challenges faced by modern businesses." The trade pact is believed to be able to have an impact on regional and world trade, as it involves preferential treatment based on the origin of goods.