Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership
Reuters
Posted: 10/05/2015 08:11 AM EDT | Edited: 15 minutes ago
By Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki
ATLANTA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal
on the most sweepingtrade liberalization pact in a generation that
will cut trade
barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official
familiar with the talks said on Monday.
Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the
pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence
everything from
the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would affect 40 percent of the world
economy and would stand as a legacy-defining achievement for U.S.
President Barack Obama,
if it is ratified by Congress.
Lawmakers in other TPP countries must also approve the deal.
The final round of negotiations in Atlanta, which began on Wednesday,
had snared on the question of how long a monopoly period should be
allowed on next-generation
biotech drugs, until the United States and Australia negotiated a compromise.
The TPP deal has been controversial because of the secret negotiations
that have shaped it over the past five years and the perceived threat
to an array
of interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers.
Although the complex deal sets tariff reduction schedules on hundreds
of imported items from pork and beef in Japan to pickup trucks in the
United States,
one issue had threatened to derail talks until the end - the length of
the monopolies awarded to the developers of new biological drugs.
Negotiating teams had been deadlocked over the question of the minimum
period of protection to the rights for data used to make biologic
drugs, made by
companies including Pfizer Inc , Roche Group's Genentech and Japan's
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.
The United States had sought 12 years of protection to encourage
pharmaceutical companies to invest in expensive biological treatments
like Genentech's
cancer treatment Avastin. Australia, New Zealand and public health
groups had sought a period of five years to bring down drug costs and
the burden on
state-subsidized medical programs.
Negotiators agreed on a compromise on minimum terms that was short of
what U.S. negotiators had sought and that would effectively grant
biologic drugs
a period of about years free from the threat of competition from
generic versions, people involved in the closed-door talks said.
The Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association said it
was "very disappointed" by reports that U.S. negotiators had not been
able to convince
Australia and other TPP members to adopt the 12-year standard approved
by Congress.
"We will carefully review the entire TPP agreement once the text is
released by the ministers," the industry lobby said in a statement.
FINAL HOURS
A politically charged set of issues surrounding protections for dairy
farmers was also addressed in the final hours of talks, officials
said. New Zealand,
home to the world's biggest dairy exporter, Fonterra, wanted increased
access to U.S., Canadian and Japanese markets.
Separately, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan also agreed
rules governing the autotrade that dictate how much of a vehicle must
be made within
the TPP region in order to qualify for duty-free status.
The North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United
States and Mexico mandates that vehicles have a local content of 62.5
percent. The way
that rule is implemented means that just over half of a vehicle needs
to be manufactured locally. It has been credited with driving a boom
in auto-related
in investment in Mexico.
The TPP would give Japan's automakers, led by Toyota Motor Corp, a
freer hand to buy parts from Asia for vehicles sold in the United
States but sets long
phase-out periods for U.S. tariffs on Japanese cars and light trucks.
The TPP deal being readied for expected announcement on Monday also
sets minimum standards on issues ranging from workers' rights to
environmental protection.
It also sets up dispute settlement guidelines between governments and
foreign investors separate from national courts.
(Reporting by Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki; Additional reporting
by Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City; Editing by Will Waterman and
Chizu Nomiyama)
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