ATLANTA — Trade ministers for 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the United States and Japan, extended negotiations into Saturday on the biggest regional trade pact in history, saying Friday they believed they were close enough to resolution on an array
ATLANTA — Trade ministers for 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the United States and Japan, extended negotiations into Saturday on the biggest regional trade pact in history, saying Friday they believed they were close enough to resolution on an array of differences to complete a deal.
The willingness to continue talks, which began in a hotel here Wednesday, fueled optimism among the participating nations — and apprehension among critics hovering in its halls and monitoring the negotiations from afar — that the elusive Trans-Pacific Partnership was within reach after years of discussion.
Negotiators for the United States and Japan neared a compromise over the length of a phaseout of tariffs on cars and trucks made in Japan and sold in the U.S.
Yet sticking points persisted, including over compromise language from the U.S. side on protections for drugmakers, an issue that stymied previous talks in July in Hawaii.
It remained unclear whether President Barack Obama would be able to claim an achievement central to his efforts to reorient the United States toward its fast-growing Pacific neighbors (rather than Europe and the Middle East) or whether the negotiators would once again pocket the progress made here and eventually stagger through another round of talks as Obama’s presidency wound down. From Washington, Obama continued to lend his influence to his trade representative, Michael B. Froman.
If an agreement is reached, Congress would not render its verdict for months, well into a presidential election year in which anti-trade rhetoric would be loud among Republicans and Democrats.
The talks also involve Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Chile and Peru. Together, the 12 nations account for about two-fifths of global economic output.
By Friday, it seemed clear than any agreement would include provisions for autos that would phase out tariffs between the participating countries, require autos to have a certain share of parts made in treaty nations, lift nontariff barriers that effectively keep U.S. autos out of Japan and create a process for settling disputes between governments over suspected violations of the agreement.
Froman was particularly embroiled Friday in trying to settle the pharmaceutical drug issues. The most vexing question was how long drug companies could have exclusive rights to data related to their development of so-called biologic drugs (products made from living organisms and considered promising for cancer treatments) before they would have to share the information with generic manufacturers.
The United States, which had insisted on 12 years to ensure drug manufacturers have incentives to innovate, recently proposed an eight-year provision as a compromise. It would give companies five years of exclusive rights followed by a three-year period of limited market-sharing. But countries like Australia and Peru balked, and outside groups in the hotel corridors were quick to object again Friday.
