Amari says Japan, US need more bilateral trade talks

Earlier this month, a group of 20 federal lawmakers urged Canadian trade officials to open its markets to more dairy imports from the United States as talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement draw to a close.

Amari said he saw no sign of the United States backing down on a demand to protect for 12 years data used to develop biologic drugs, which are made from living cells.

“I have an impression that there has been substantial progress”, Amari told reporters after arriving in Hawaii.

Although Washington, which leads the initiative, is putting pressure on other TPP members to finalize a deal, some negotiation sources are skeptical about whether the ministers will be able to agree on details in Hawaii given huge remaining gaps over hard problems.

Many are concerned that longer monopoly periods will push up the cost of state-subsidized medicines and delay the introduction of cheaper alternatives, although pharmaceutical companies say the opposite is true.

The TPP, which would cover around 40 percent of global output, involves Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

The major issue on the table for the U.S. and is likely to be the dairy trade.

“Our biggest fear is that the U.S.’s surplus production is more than Canada’s total production”, said MacNevin.

“There are discussions going on to see if a provision can go beyond having meetings of ministers”, said Levin, who is attending ministerial talks aimed at wrapping up the deal.