WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) — The United States has called ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Pacific trade deal for a meeting Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 in a bid to finish the pact, a key part of the U.S. administration’s engagement with Asia.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership seeks to cut trade barriers and set common standards for 40 percent of the world economy and will be a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. president Barack Obama.
The U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement the United States would host the ministers in Atlanta. Chief negotiators will meet from Sept. 26-29.
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“Trade ministers and negotiators last met in July and have been making good progress toward resolving the limited number of outstanding issues,” USTR said in a statement.
The last ministerial talks, in Hawaii, stumbled over dairy trade, monopoly periods for next-generation, biologic drugs and rules of origin for autos.
Officials close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that two days of talks on the threshold for local content in auto trade between the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico had made progress and they aimed to agree a final deal next week.
Another sticking point is how long to protect data used to develop biologic drugs. Washington is pushing for 12 years protection, but Australia has only five and Chile has none at all.
