The New York Times is reporting that the final round of TPP negotiations, currently underway in Hawaii, may fail due to a lack of agreement between prospective signatories on a number of critical issues, including exclusivity rights on intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry and access to livestock and agricultural markets.
Negotiators will return to their home countries to obtain high-level signoffs for a small number of final sticking points on the agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with bilateral talks reconvening soon.
But the breakdown is a setback for the Obama administration, which had promoted the talks here as the final round ahead of an accord that would bind 40 percent of the world’s economy under a new set of rules for commerce.
If this inability to come to a final agreement stands, it would be outstanding news. Essentially, it would be dead in the water until next year--in the midst of the U.S. election season. The writer, Jonathan Weissman, notes:
But the failure to complete the deal — eight years in the making — means the next round of negotiations will push the United States ratification fight into 2016, a presidential election year. Most Republican candidates are likely to back it, but a final agreement would force the Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton to declare her position, which she has avoided.
Again, while the article implies that the negotiations are on life-support now, we've seen this beast come back from the dead more than once, so let's (those of us who oppose it) keep our fingers crossed and keep vigilant in our opposition. Also, supporting presidential candidates who openly oppose the TPP (
cough Bernie cough) is really important, as well.
Cheers!
UPDATE: Looks like the negotiations have indeed stalled for now, as Reuters is also reporting that the Hawaii talks have ended without finalizing the agreement.
Pacific Rim trade ministers failed to clinch a deal on Friday to free up trade between a dozen nations after a dispute flared up over auto trade between Japan and North America, New Zealand dug in over dairy trade and no agreement was reached on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs.
Again, what this means for the near term is that it's now virtually certain that the next round of negotiations will certainly overlap with the media circus over the election next year, and certain politicians can expect increasing pressure to come clean over their positions on the agreement as the campaign heats up.
The TPP is far from dead, but these setbacks can help us to turn up the pressure on ostensibly progressive Democratic candidates for national office during this election cycle, and to force them, if necessary, to be very clear--or to come clean--with their positions on the TPP, TTIP, and TiSA.