MEXICO CITY (Reuters) — A meeting aimed at sealing a Pacific trade deal has been called for April, Mexico’s economy minister said on Tuesday, adding he was optimistic it would be finalized in the first half of 2015.
“I am very optimistic that there will be good news for the TPP in the first half of this year,” Ildefonso Guajardo told Reuters, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
A Mexican government official said the meeting would be held at a ministerial level, but there were no details on where it would take place or on which dates.
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A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said there was still more preparation to do before calling ministers to the table.
“We have more work to do before we are ready to plan for another ministerial meeting,” spokesman Trevor Kincaid said.
“We are meeting bilaterally, in small groups, and have a chief negotiator meeting set to continue building on our progress.”
Chief negotiators will meet in Hawaii in March.
On Jan. 22, Guajardo had said a mid-March deal was “feasible,” though Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade said earlier this month he expected the pact to be finalized during the first half of the year.
The TPP would link up a dozen Asia-Pacific economies by eliminating trade barriers and harmonizing regulations in a pact covering two-fifths of the world economy and a third of all global trade.
A deal would still need to be approved by the U.S. Senate, where President Barack Obama is likely to face resistance from some of his fellow Democrats.
Japan’s Economy Minister Akira Amari said earlier on Tuesday that talks between Japan and the United States on a trade deal are running behind schedule.
The two nations have been working on a two-way trade deal, which will play an important role in the 12-nation TPP trade talks.
