WASHINGTON: Delegates negotiating a vast Pacific free-trade agreement have failed to reach a final deal after several days of intense talks in Hawaii, dealing a setback to US President Barack Obama. The delay complicates his efforts this year to secure the historic accord, which risks becoming dragged into the 2016 presidential election debate.

US Trade Representative Michael Froman, in a statement late Friday on behalf of the 12 countries involved in the talks on the island of Maui, insisted that significant progress had been made on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, the most ambitious trade deal in decades.

“After more than a week of productive meetings we’ve made significant progress and will continue on resolving a limited number of remaining issues,” he told a press conference.

Negotiators were “more confident than ever that the TPP is within reach,” he said, adding that the Pacific Rim countries would continue bilateral discussions to try and iron out remaining differences.

Already eight years in the making, TPP would be a huge bloc encompassing 40 per cent of global trade and part of Obama’s much-vaunted “pivot” towards Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China, which is not included in TPP.

The failure by trade ministers to wrap up the accord Friday was a blow to Obama — who faces opposition to the deal from fellow Democrats — as it could see the TPP become campaign fodder ahead of November 2016 elections.

‘ON THE CUSP’: The TPP countries — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US — have faced criticism for carrying out their negotiations in what opponents have charged is intense secrecy.

Its many critics say the proposals indicate a deal moving more toward protection than free trade; one more about corporate benefits than boosting economies and development.

But backers say the modern global economy needs new rules of the road to protect intellectual property-dependent 21st century industries not covered in traditional free-trade forums like the WTO. Trade ministers were keen to talk up the positives. Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb said they were “on the cusp,” with “provisional decisions on more than 90pc of issues”.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2015

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