In July, chief negotiators from the 12–countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks met in Ottawa, Ontario, to continue their work. The TPP is a potential free trade agreement between countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, the United States and Japan. The agreement is intended to reduce or eliminate tariffs and other barriers to trade for goods, services and agriculture products, and establish rules for foreign direct investment and other related economic activities.

Goals for the Ottawa Meeting

In previous talks, the member countries had worked on several contested points, which they hope to resolve ahead of a ministerial meeting in the near future.

Many participating countries wanted the Ottawa meeting to move final negotiations toward a basic agreement. U.S. President Barak Obama spoke publically before the meeting to express the desire to have a basic agreement made by Nov. 10 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

These indicators reflect the continuing hope of some participants for a basic agreement by the end of the year.

Progress Made, But More Needed Before Agreement

In Ottawa, negotiators agreed that exports or imports of goods produced with forced labor would be banned as part of the agreement. They also came to an agreement in regard to quarantines and the safety of imported foods.

Several issues remained unresolved after the meeting, including state-run company reforms, intellectual property concerns and environmental affairs. The schedule for a planned follow-up meeting for negotiations was also undetermined. Koji Tsuruoka, chief Japanese negotiator, told Reuters that the member countries felt that the timing was not right to set a ministerial meeting since sufficient progress had not been made on several issues.

While there was progress toward an agreement at the most recent TPP meeting in Ottawa, several points still need to be resolved before a basic agreement can be reached. To further this goal, negotiations continue in separate discussions on issues such as talks between the United States and Japan regarding market access, particularly of sensitive products like rice, wheat, sugar, meat and dairy. These dialogues will help members prepare for intensive tariff negotiations with all the TPP countries in future meetings. In doing so, participants are hoping to an agreement before the end of 2014.