Takanori Okabe
11 member nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks held an inter-sessional round of negotiations earlier this month to advance technical discussions on specific areas, with more to come before July when Japan is scheduled to join the negotiations, which means there will be less room for Japan to participate in the rule-making process of the TPP initiative, sources said.
The Canadian government announced Sunday, June 16, that the TPP members held negotiations focusing on investment provisions in Vancouver from Friday, June 14, to Sunday, June 16. Andina, a Peruvian national news agency, reported on Sunday, June 16, and Monday, June 17, that inter-sessional meetings of chief negotiators and a negotiating group discussing cross-border trade will be held in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, from Wednesday, June 19, to Friday, June 21, and that meetings on rules of origin are scheduled in San Francisco, the United States, from Monday, June 24, to Thursday, June 27.
After the Peru round of TPP negotiations held in May, the U.S. Trade Representative announced that the members have agreed on holding inter-sessional rounds of meetings to discuss technical issues concerning 21 areas addressed in the TPP framework. Since then, such meetings have been held in between formal rounds of the TPP negotiations.
The TPP participants are aiming at concluding the negotiations by the end of this year, and the decision to hold inter-sessional meetings signals their intention to speed up the negotiations. “I am pleased to report that the sessions held in Vancouver have helped move these important negotiations forward,” said Canadian International Trade Minister Ed Fast on Sunday, June 16, after the conclusion of inter-sessional round of negotiations in Canada.
Japan, which is likely to formally enter the TPP negotiations near the end of the Malaysia round of talks scheduled from Monday, July 15, to Thursday, July 25, will not be able to participate in the inter-sessional round to be held this month. “We don’t think the meetings are scheduled with the intention of excluding Japan from the negotiations, but we fear that the negotiations could enter the final stage before Japan’s entry,” a member of the Liberal Democratic Party’s TPP committee warned.
(June 20, 2013)