Canada to attend TPP meeting after APEC no-show

Negotiators seeking ‘ better access and terms for autos’

OT TAWA Canada will attend a key meeting on the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership in Tokyo next week, two months after a high-profile noshow that infuriated its negotiating partners, the Canadian and Japanese governments have confirmed.

The meeting of chief negotiators Monday and Tuesday is intended to accelerate progress on the 11-country trade zone after Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said this week he wants a deal by March. Canada’s chief and deputy chief negotiators for the CPTPP will attend, according to Joseph Pickerill, spokesman for Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

What was known as the TPP11 is a resurrection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership without the U.S., whose president, Donald Trump, withdrew from a signed agreement as soon as he took office and before most countries had ratified it.

At a Vietnam meeting of the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation in November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau missed a leaders’ meeting where some countries hoped an agreement would conclude. Amid backlash over Trudeau’s no-show, trade ministers still managed to agree on a new name, at Canada’s suggestion, and a framework for the agreement that acknowledged four outstanding issues must still be addressed. Still, Canada’s participation has remained a question mark for many observers.

Progress is being made on the four issues, according to Mitsuru Myochin, who works at the Japanese cabinet’s headquarters for the CPTPP. He confirmed this week that Canadian officials have been in touch with their counterparts to discuss a way forward on cultural protections. Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam are also seeking remedies on state-owned enterprise, services and investment non-conforming measures and labour dispute settlement, respectively. He said in an email Thursday evening that delegations from all 11 countries have confirmed their attendance.

Although it is not named as one of the outstanding issues to be resolved, with trade ministers having agreed not to touch market access issues, Pickerill said Canada is also still seeking “better access and terms for autos.”

“Our priority is to ensure that it is the right deal for Canadian workers and businesses. We must be strategic,” he said in an email Friday. “Success will be determined over decades and while that may take a little longer to lock-in now, we are committed to being constructive, expeditious and ambitious towards that aim.”

Nonetheless, ministers had agreed in November to bring the CPTPP into force “expeditiously” and with Australia and Japan gunning for a speedy conclusion, some have suggested the group may not wait for Canada. Because negotiators have not met in person since the APEC kerfuffle, a lot is riding on next week’s meetings.

The CPTPP framework includes a chapter on accession, so Canada could conceivably wait to join the agreement if it wanted to, though it would have to agree to whatever terms the other 10 countries decide upon.

Our priority is to ensure that it is the right deal for Canadian workers and businesses. We must be strategic.