HAKONE, July 14 — Senior trade officials from the 11 signatories of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have wrapped up a two-day meeting that ended July 13 in Hakone, a lake resort near Tokyo, producing no progress on how to bring the deal into force without the United States.
In May, 11 countries agreed to explore how the TPP deal is being implemented without the U.S.
They now aim to reach an agreement in November when their leaders will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.
At the Hakone meeting, several countries asked to make changes of the deal, in which they had to give in to U.S. demands, including monopoly protection for drugs, sources said. But there was no agreement on the substance of how to resolve them.
Japan, Australia and New Zealand don’t believe the deal can be renegotiated, even after the U.S. pulled out of the TPP. They want to fix as few issues as possible without reopening the text of the deal, sources said.
The negotiators will meet again as early as late August in Australia, which will chair the senior official meeting.