Vietnam is joining 11 other countries at the 18th round ofTrans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in Malaysia from July15–25.
The parties involved besides Vietnam are Japan, the US,Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peruand Singapore.
Negotiation sources said on July 16 that TPPfree trade negotiations remain stalled over five topics including thekey issue of market access or tariff elimination.
Onemarket access proposal under discussion calls for all parties to agreeon the removal of tariffs on all products before moratoriums are se upon the removal of tariffs for certain products of special concern to TPPparticipants, they said.
One of the source said it is likely that some of the decisions will be subjected to political decisions in the final phase.
The other four problematic issues are intellectual property rights,environmental problems, labour and electronic commerce, it said.
The 11 TPP negotiation participants plan to broadly agree on the TPPfree trade agreement by October and sign the pact by the end of thisyear.
Negotiations have ended on five of the 29planned chapters – trade facilitation, telecomunications development, small and medium-sized enterprises andhave effectively been completed on nine others, one of the sources said.
Japan is set to join the negotiations of July 23amidst the current round of talks that started on July 15 in KotaKinabalu, eastern Malaysia.-VNA