Trans-Pacific Partnership: Australia walks away from deal
AAP
AUGUST 01, 2015 12:05PM
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Trade ministers from 12 Pacific Rim nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement pose for a group photo at a meeting in Lahaina, Hawaii. Source: AP Australia will not sign up to the trans-Pacific partnership trade deal in the current round of talks. A spokesman for Trade Minister Andrew Robb confirmed that a conclusion will not be reached on the $200 billion deal during the latest round of negotiations.
“Australia had made some excellent progress but unfortunately some difficult issues were not resolved,” he said in a statement to AAP on Saturday.
The announcement comes after The Weekend Australian revealed that an unexpected dispute over dairy exports between the US, Mexico, Canada and Japan has emerged as an 11th-hour threat to agreement.
Mr Robb faces his own revolt from elected representatives with Nationals MPs and senators threatening to cross the floor in parliament and vote against the trade deal if it did not contain enough gains for Australian sugar farmers.
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Mr Robb said the offers so far from the US on sugar trade access — because of the agreements between the US and Mexico — were not reasonable and he was still holding out.
“I’m trying to work particularly on the chance of increasing Australia’s share of the growth in the US sugar market, where I think there are big opportunities,” Mr Robb said. “You can’t go from exporting 87,000 tonnes of sugar to the US straight to 1.5 million tonnes but we can do more with our entitlement on growth.”
Mr Robb said the US was resisting dropping protection periods for patents and Australia was ensuring there were sufficient safeguards against litigation and protections on health.
Labor, which is fighting aspects of the free-trade agreement with China, insists the TPP must provide greater market access to agricultural commodities and no adverse impacts on Australian drug prices.
Labor opposes any international dispute-settlement agreements in trade pacts.
