Trans-pacific Partnership Negotiations

Trans-pacific Partnership in 2013

United States views on international law [1] in relation to Trans-pacific Partnership: On December 10, 2013, a four-day ministerial meeting of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP”) countries concluded with substantial progress being made toward the conclusion of a trade and investment agreement. The statement issued by the ministers and heads of delegation for the TPP countries at the conclusion of their meetings in Singapore on December 10 appears below and is available at (link resource) ustr.gov/tpp, along with other information including a briefing by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on December 10, 2013 on the progress made in Singapore on the TPP agreement.

Some Aspects of Trans-pacific Partnership

We, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam, have just completed a four-day Ministerial meeting in Singapore where we have made substantial progress toward completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Developments

Over the course of this meeting, we identified potential “landing zones” for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text. We will continue to work with flexibility to finalize these text issues as well as market access issues.

For all TPP countries, an ambitious, comprehensive and high-standard agreement that achieves the goals established in Honolulu in 2011 is critical for creating jobs and promoting growth, providing opportunity for our citizens and contributing to regional integration and the strengthening of the multilateral trading system.

Details

Therefore, we have decided to continue our intensive work in the coming weeks toward such an agreement. We will also further our consultations with stakeholders and engage in our respective political processes.

Following additional work by negotiators, we intend to meet again next month.

Resources

Notes

1. Trans-pacific Partnership in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law