TPP to be reached by year’s end, longer tax reduction road map proposed

To achieve the goal, a further round of TPP ministerial meetings will take place in Bali in December, on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework.

In addition, another round of talks, conducted in November with the chiefs of TPP negotiating team from each country, is expected to take place in Japan.

But U.S. trade representative Michael Froman admitted that many unresolved problems for TPP remain, from intellectual property rights to state-owned enterprises, labor, and environment.

According to the Financial Times, about 15 out of 29 negotiation chapters have formally ended. Of the remaining, 7-8 chapters just need a slight correction.

Of the outstanding sensitive issues, tax reduction is a complex issue. Due to different levels of development, each country wants varying tax reduction timeframes to suit their particular economy.

One shoe cannot fit all

One of the breakthroughs of TPP negotiations is the proposal on the extension of tax reduction schedules for 4 countries, including Vietnam, increased from 10 years to 30 years.

This proposal is initiated by some developing countries, claiming that their domestic industries needs time to compete with other economies. With many other economic agreements, tariff elimination time frame usually stays within 10 years.

Previously, TPP member countries agreed on grace periods for some countries considered less developed, like Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, and Brunei, especially for complex areas such as intellectual ownership.

The plan will be a way to remove the impasse in current negotiations.

The TPP negotiations, which have lasted three years with the participation of 12 countries, pin high hope on the establishment of a free trade block with 800 million people. Those countries accounts for about 40% of GDP and one third of global trade.

The TPP advocates have hailed the agreement, emphasizing that it is the most ambitious since the failure of the Doha round of negotiations, which attempted to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Meanwhile, some opponents say the TPP will allow big multinational corporations with unprecedented powers to challenge the policymaking process of each member country.

TPP also have the ambition to regulate many issues deemed sensitive, such as government procurement, intellectual property rights, and the role of state-owned enterprises, as well as offer large corporations the right to sue the government of the TPP member countries.