Countries leave Hawaii without 12-nation trade agreement

The 12-country negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes Canada, the U.S., and Japan, are aimed at creating nothing less than the largest global trade deal in history.

In recent months, other countries have singled out Canada for having taken a hard line on allowing foreign competition into its tightly controlled dairy sector.

Akira Amari the Minister of Economy in Japan said that the TPP member nations likely would come to an agreement if they were to meet once more and he understood that the ministers’ goal was to meet again before the end of August.

New Zealand has said it will not back a deal that does not significantly open dairy markets, with an eye to the United States, Japan and Canada, as well as Mexico.

More than 70% of the 1,360 people surveyed agreed it was important for their government to protect the Canadian dairy industry.

Canada’s global Trade Minister Ed Fast is also at the talks.

“I view this type of pressure tactic as just more negotiating through the media, and we’ve been consistent in not engaging in that, preferring instead to sit down at the table in a more constructive manner”, Rick Roth wrote in an email. And 89 per cent said it was important, or very important, that the milk products they use come from Canadian farmers. It wants countries to adopt its 12-year exclusivity period for new biologics products; Canada offers eight years and some countries offer virtually no protection.

The talks, which drew about 650 negotiators, 150 journalists and hundreds of stakeholders, had been billed as the last chance to get a deal in time to pass the U.S. Congress this year, before 2016 presidential elections muddy the waters. So does Japan, where a drop in recent polls has left Prime Minister Shinzo Abe politically vulnerable.

Petersen declined to enter particulars concerning the playing cards Canada has placed on the desk, however he stated it should supply extra concessions on dairy entry on the ongoing talks than it gave up whereas negotiating its free-trade cope with the European Union.

“That’s the risk (with delays)”, said Wolff, who negotiated U.S. access to the Japanese market in the 1970s, helped draft early U.S. fast-track trade legislation, and worked on the landmark GATT treaty.

One of many fundamental concessions focused by different nations on the desk: decreasing Canada’s protectionism on dairy imports.

Any major opening of that sector could produce tension between parts of the country with dairy farms – especially in rural Quebec and Ontario – against big population centres, where consumers might like more options at the grocery store, and enjoy the idea of competition lowering prices for cheese and yogurt. “We’ve been saying all along that Canada’s dairy system is worth keeping”.

While the Harper government has been reluctant to discuss the status of negotiations in public, Petersen said it’s an open secret at the Hawaii meetings that the Canadians want to wrap things up by the end of the week.

Andrew Robb, the Trade Minister in Australia said the problems were with the four big economies of Canada, Japan, Mexico and the United States.