Trade ministers from the 12 nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership covering 40 percent of the global economy say they will “continue work on resolving a limited number of remaining issues” that prevented a final agreement in Hawaii. The Washington Post said one of the stumbling blocks was Canada’s high tariffs on dairy imports. Canada offered to reduce the tariffs, which run up to 296 percent, but not enough to satisfy nations such as New Zealand. “In other areas, Japan appeared likely to gradually reduce tariffs on pork and beef but was more reluctant to give access to foreign rice growers.”
Canada will hold parliamentary elections in October, “and the conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, is reluctant to rouse the ire of dairy farmers” ahead of the vote, said the Post. The Obama administration hoped to wrap up negotiations in Hawaii. “The delay … makes it more likely that a final agreement would not go to Congress for approval until 2016, when political considerations will be even more in the forefront of lawmakers’ minds,” said the Post, referring to the U.S. presidential and congressional elections.
Said the New York Times, “In the end, a deal filled with 21st-century policies on Internet access, advanced pharmaceuticals and trade in clean energy foundered on issues that have bedeviled international trade for decades: access to dairy markets in Canada, sugar markets in the United States and rice markets in Japan.”
Two days after the TPP talks, Canada’s prime minister triggered the general election campaign by asking for dissolution of parliament with elections set for Oct. 19. “Mr. Harper’s center-right Conservative Party has been in office since 2006 but analysts say he could struggle to form another majority government,” said the BBC. It said a poll released on Sunday put the Conservatives only slightly ahead of the New Democratic Party and the Liberals a close third, “all of them at about 30 percent. Other polls have put the NDP slightly in the lead.”