They could not, however, reach an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks at the close of a two-day ministerial meeting in Singapore, ensuring that the negotiations, which have dragged on for four years now, will continue indefinitely.
This was the third time in six months that Singapore has hosted talks involving ministers of the 12 TPP countries.
Singapore was represented by Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang.
When asked when he expected a deal to be sealed, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman would only say: “As soon as we have an ambitious, comprehensive and high-standard agreement – exactly at that moment.
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The TPP countries – Singapore, Australia, Canada, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the US and Vietnam – missed a self-imposed, end-2013 target to reach a final accord.
Mr Froman told a packed press conference that there was no fixed deadline or timeframe in place to wrap up the talks, even as one journalist wondered if a deal could be clinched ahead of US congressional elections this November.
In an interview with Japanese media group Nikkei Inc last week, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he hoped that the TPP could be concluded by year-end, “otherwise, we will miss the American timetable and we may be into a new (US) president”.
He added that, from a long-term point of view, it would be highly desirable for Japan to liberalise its agricultural markets.
He made the point that Japan had to carry out this reform sooner rather than later in order for the country to play a full role in the Asia-Pacific and global economies, as well as to revitalise its own economy.
Last year, Japan became the newest entrant to the TPP family, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made finalising the TPP a key plank of his government’s economic policies.
The trade ministers, meanwhile, noted yesterday that recent bilateral talks between the US and Japan – which together account for 80 per cent of the combined GDP of the TPP countries – had given a fresh boost to help break the impasse in the negotiations.
Disagreements between Washington and Tokyo over market access for agricultural and automobile industries have been major stumbling blocks so far, but Mr Froman remained confident that a breakthrough could be made soon.
“The discussions over the last two days in Singapore have been overwhelmingly positive.
We made progress on market access and rules and charted a way forward,” he said.
This strong momentum, he added, was fuelled by US President Barack Obama’s recent visits to Japan and Malaysia, as well as the progress made by the TPP countries’ chief negotiators at their meeting in Vietnam last week.
Japanese trade negotiators are also heading to Washington soon to talk about issues related to the agriculture and automobile sectors.
“I leave (Singapore) with a sense of very positive momentum, with all parties working hard to resolve the remaining issues on market access and rules side,” said Mr Froman.
The chief negotiators of the 12 TPP countries have been told by their ministers to meet again in July at a venue yet to be announced.
The TPP, should it eventually come to fruition, would be the world’s largest free-trade agreement and cover nearly 40 per cent of the global economy.
