Canada holds on for TPP deal
Gets better labour, environment, intellectual properties pact with 10 countries
DANANG, VIETNAM — In a major breakthrough, trade ministers from Canada and 10 other Pacific Rim countries said they reached a deal Saturday to proceed with the free-trade Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that was in doubt after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned it in January.
A statement issued in the early hours Saturday said an accord was reached on “core elements” of the 11-member pact. The compromise was delayed by last-minute disagreements that prevented the TPP leaders from meeting to endorse a plan on Friday.
The agreement came after a frenetic, confusing day of talks and media reports that bluntly blamed Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for helping to scuttle a scheduled meeting to discuss the trade pact.
International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne summoned journalists just before midnight Friday to say that the TPP trade ministers had agreed to a number of key changes that moved the talks closer to a deal. Canada is better off because of the new developments, Champagne said.
“We don’t settle for just any deal,” Champagne said, acknowledging Trudeau’s decidedly downbeat comments from a day earlier. “If it takes one more day, so be it.”
He said the TPP countries agreed to suspend controversial provisions from the original TPP deal related to intellectual property. Leaders in Canada’s tech sector have long pressed Ottawa to have those elements removed from the deal.
He also said the partners established a framework to deal with rules of origin issues related to the auto sector and on how the countries will proceed with including cultural exemptions into the treaty.
The parties also agreed, he added, to enhance elements in the pact related to the environment and are much closer to stronger protections of labour rights.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier Friday that the 11 leaders had to postpone their meeting on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang, Vietnam. Abe spoke after meeting with Trudeau, who had said days earlier that Canada would not be rushed into an agreement.