No timetable for admission of new nations into Asia-Pacific trade talks

There is no timetable to determine if and when three nations will be allowed to join talks on an Asia-Pacific trade deal, a U.S. trade negotiator said Wednesday. 

A U.S. trade official said the nine nations, including the United States, are at different stages of determining if Japan, Canada and Mexico can join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, as negotiators wrap up the latest round in Dallas this week. 

"We will make a decision when the consultations are concluded," Barbara Weisel, chief negotiator and assistant trade representative for Southeast Asia and Pacific Affairs, told reporters on Wednesday. 

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk is expected to meet with his TPP counterparts during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers meeting in Kazan, Russia, in early June to discuss the progress of the talks and agree on a plan forward.  

At APEC, trade officials also will discuss consultations for considering the membership of Canada, Japan and Mexico. 

Speculation has abounded as to when the nations — the United States, Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — would decide when and if to add countries onto the negotiations. 

U.S. officials have said they generally back the addition of the three nations, but concede that each have specific issues to address. Supporters also have expressed concern that negotiations would be slowed if nations are added midstream. 

But some supporters said recently that the "window is narrowing quickly" to let Japan, Canada and Mexico join discussions to avoid a delay in the talks, which the nations have said they hope to complete by the end of the year. 

If the nations can't reach an agreement they would probably wait until an agreement is completed before adding any other interested countries, the number of which is expected to expand. 

Overall, Weisel said negotiators made "better than expected progress on many issues" during their time in Dallas and still have plenty of work to do heading into the next round of talks in San Diego in early July. 

She said the group of nations are "committed to an ambitious outcome" and were "pleased by the progress they were able to achieve." 

"But nothing is done until everything is done," she said. 

"We want to continue to move full steam ahead and make a big step toward conclusion of the agreement."

During this 11-day negotiating round, the countries closed discussions on small- and medium-sized enterprises, which account for two-thirds of job creation in the United States and are intended to support their integration into global trade.

Trade Ambassador Miriam Sapiro said Wednesday that helping small business increase exports as part of the TPP and around the world is a focus of the trade negotiations. 

She said during a hearing at the House Small Business Committee that free-trade agreements "clearly benefit small businesses" because they don't have the tools and resources of large companies to make the jump into increasing their exports.

Lawmakers need to continue to "speak forcefully about importance of trade, why its so critical for small businesses," she said. 

Panel Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) recently introduced a measure to make the export process more efficient, while reducing duplication and wasteful spending of federal trade promotion agencies.

"The committee has made increasing exports a priority," Graves said. "We must provide small businesses with the resources necessary to increase their exports."

During the Dallas talks, negotiators moved toward closure on the other issues of regulatory coherence, trade and the environment, the digital economy, regional supply linkages between TPP countries and promoting development. 

The nine countries also discussed the U.S. proposal on state-owned enterprises, a new and challenging issue intended to lay out rules to ensure that these enterprises compete fairly with private companies.  

Weisel said the USTR has taken several years to develop the proposal that is designed to address the issue while ensuring that private companies can compete. 

She said it would "discipline" the activities of state-owned enterprises but not stop their creation. 

In addition, the countries continued work on developing tariff packages that would provide access to each other’s industrial goods, agricultural and textiles markets. They also discussed specific commitments on liberalization of their respective services and government procurement markets.