Ministers pursuing a 12-country Pacific Rim trade pact will signal they have made good progress as a crucial four-day meeting ends today but are likely to fall short of closing a deal.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is one of the main pillars of the Obama administration’s second-term trade agenda, and the US had aimed to reach a pact by the end of the year. However, talks were slowed by a US budget impasse that forced President Barack Obama to cancel a trip to Asia and tough negotiations with Japan, which only joined the talks in July.
If and when completed, the TPP will be the biggest regional deal signed, including countries that account for more than a third of the global economy.