Pacific Trade Agreement is Far from a Done Deal
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [International New York Times] By Jonathan Weisman - August 3, 2015 -
In the end, a Pacific trade deal filled with 21st-century policies on Internet access, advanced pharmaceuticals and trade in clean energy foundered on issues that have bedeviled international trade for decades: access to dairy markets in Canada, sugar markets in the United States and rice markets in Japan.
Trade negotiators from the United States and 11 other Pacific nations failed to reach final agreement on Friday, with difficult talks on the largest regional trade agreement ever deadlocking over protections for drug companies and access to agriculture markets on both sides of the Pacific.
Trade ministers, in a joint statement, said they had made ‘‘significant progress’’ and 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.
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