Singapore Touts Progress At Round, Including On Regulatory Coherence [Link]
Daily News
Singapore Touts Progress At Round, Including On Regulatory Coherence
Posted: March 13, 2013
SINGAPORE During the 16th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations that wrapped up here today (March 13), the 11 participating countries made the best progress in the areas of regulatory coherence, customs, development and telecommunications, according to a press release issued by Singapores Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). The progress in the area of regulatory coherence could be a reference to new language that sources said was tabled on this issue by New Zealand at this round, although the details of this new proposal remain unclear. The original U.S. proposal on regulatory coherence established an obligation for each TPP party to endeavor to set up a regulatory coordination mechanism at the central level of government, and to consider establishing a national coordinating body for this purpose, according to a version of the text leaked in October 2011. But the New Zealand approach appears to focus more narrowly on the issue of notification requirements. Sources said it was unclear whether, under the New Zealand proposal, notifications would be required only if and when a TPP party establishes a regulatory coordination mechanism, or every time that mechanism reviews a regulation. Sources also disagreed on whether the New Zealand language would be in lieu of text proposed by the United States, or in addition to it. In the press release, MTI said other areas of the TPP talks where discussions continued in earnest were services, electronic commerce, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade and government procurement. In the area of SPS, negotiators here discussed a non-paper floated by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that proposes a consultative mechanism for resolving SPS disputes. This proposal, which sources said involves the appointment of a neutral facilitator to resolve SPS disputes, falls short of the full dispute settlement for SPS obligations that U.S. agriculture and food groups have demanded. One informed source said the paper was not received well at the negotiating table by some TPP countries, including New Zealand, which want full dispute settlement for SPS obligations. The USTR non-paper does not mention a rapid-response mechanism (RRM) for quickly resolving SPS problems for perishable goods that has been proposed by U.S. agriculture groups, according to another informed source. According to the MTI release, TPP countries recognize that further deliberation will be required in the more challenging areas of the negotiations, which include intellectual property, environment, competition and labor. Labor negotiators at this round continued to discuss an approach to dispute settlement that is favored by Canada and based on the side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), although Canada does not appear to have tabled legal text on this issue, according to an informed source. Canada first defended this approach at the December negotiating round in New Zealand (Inside U.S. Trade, Dec. 14). The NAFTA side accord limits enforcement of trade or investment-related labor rights violations to monetary fines. That differs from the U.S. approach in the TPP labor text, which allows for penalties in the form of fines as well as trade sanctions based on the amount of trade affected by a given pattern of labor rights violations. This reflects provisions in the U.S.-Peru free trade agreement, which applies the same enforcement mechanism to labor and environmental obligations as it does to commercial requirements. According to MTI, TPP negotiators also continued efforts here to develop market access packages on goods, services, investment and government procurement. MTI said Singapore, as host of the 16th round, aimed to invigorate the talks, including by exploring fresh configurations for the negotiations. One innovation was for some working groups to break into smaller informal meetings as part of the official negotiation agenda to tease out the more difficult issues with fresh eyes, Singapore chief negotiator Ng Bee Kim
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Singapore Touts Progress At Round, Including On Regulatory Coherence [Link]
said in the release. We are glad that it worked well and helped move our negotiations along. A wide range of sources here said chief negotiators during this round ramped up their engagement with the chapter negotiators, in some cases meeting several times a day to provide further direction. The MTI press release also noted that the next event on the TPP calendar is a meeting of trade ministers from the 11 participating countries that will occur on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting slated to take place in Indonesia April 20-21.
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