Japan, U.S. May Resume TPP Talks on July 9

Tokyo, July 1 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese and U.S. governments are considering resuming bilateral working-level talks related to Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade negotiations on July 9, informed sources said Wednesday. Through the talks, Tokyo and Washington hope to find a common ground on remaining pending issues, including the handling of rice and other key farm products and automobile trade, as the 12 countries participating in the TPP negotiations are seen holding a ministerial meeting in late July with the aim of reaching a broad accord. While the timing of the Japan-U.S. talks is still fluid, the Japanese side hopes to arrange the bilateral session for next week, the sources said. Japanese participants in the talks, seen taking place in Tokyo, will include Hiroshi Oe, acting chief TPP negotiator, and Takeo Mori, ambassador in charge of economic diplomacy. The U.S. team will be led by Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, the sources said. The overall TPP negotiations are expected to get an impetus if Japan and the United States, the two biggest players in the multilateral talks, can pave the way for sorting out issues pending between them. The 12 countries may hold a meeting of their chief negotiators from around July 23 before the envisaged ministerial meeting, to be held possibly in Hawaii, the sources said. But it remains unclear if an agreement will be reached early in the TPP negotiations, because there still are difficult issues such as establishing rules for the protection of intellectual property rights, the sources said. END