TPP Talks To Begin in Vietnam

Countries involved in negotiations for an ambitious Pacific free trade agreement began talks in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, aiming to strike a deal in time for a ministerial meeting that Singapore has confirmed will be held in the city-state on May 19-20.

The fresh round of negotiations comes after Japan and the United States, the two biggest economies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, moved closer over bilateral contentious issues following a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama last month.

Over the next four days, the chief negotiators from the 12 TPP member nations will focus on resolving tough remaining issues such as tariffs, especially in areas including politically sensitive agricultural goods, intellectual property and reform of state-owned companies.

Koji Tsuruoka, Japan’s top TPP negotiator, said bilateral negotiations over tariff removal will be the key to moving things forward at the meeting.

“I hope we will be able to see significant results that will lead to finalizing” a deal, Tsuruoka told reporters prior to the start of the meeting, noting that there has been major progress in Japan-U.S. bilateral talks recently.

via Mainichi

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza