(Changes dateline, adds details from talks)
LAHAINA, Hawaii, July 26 (Reuters) - Pacific Rim officials
meet in Hawaii this week for talks that could make or break an
ambitious trade deal which aims to boost growth and set common
standards across a dozen economies ranging from the United
States to Brunei.
Trade ministers go into the talks, which run from July 28 to
31 on the island of Maui, with high hopes of a pact to conclude
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the most sweeping trade
deal in a generation and a legacy-defining achievement for U.S.
President Barack Obama.
But although officials in Maui said the mood was optimistic,
the toughest issues have been left until last, including
monopoly periods for new life-saving medicines and preferential
treatment for state-owned companies, besides more traditional
issues such as allowing more competition in protected markets.
"This meeting will be extremely important to decide the fate
of the TPP negotiations," Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari
told reporters on Friday.
"I believe all the nations will come to the meeting with
their strong determination that it has to be the last one."
Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast was more cautious, warning
last week that there was a lot of hard work still to be done.
Canada's refusal so far to accept more dairy imports is a
major sticking point in the talks, infuriating the United States
as well as New Zealand, which has said it will not sign a deal
that fails to open new dairy markets.
Mexico, which buys half its imports from Canada and the
United States and very few from other TPP countries, was also
falling short in opening its markets, a source close to the
talks said.
Failure to agree this week will endanger an already tight
timeline to get a deal through the divided U.S. Congress this
year, before the 2016 presidential campaign dominates the
agenda.
A six-week battle over U.S. legislation to streamline the
passage of trade deals through Congress finally ended in late
June, sparking a rush of negotiations to ready ministers to take
the tough decisions needed to wrap up the talks. ID:nL1N0ZA1PK
Tami Overby, senior vice president for Asia with the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, said it would be very difficult to keep the
momentum going if ministers failed to reach agreement this week,
although she added that she was optimistic of success.
A U.S. official said talks would continue if there was no
finalized agreement in Maui.
Peruvian unions, however, recently filed a complaint with
the U.S. Department of Labor, saying their government was
falling short of standards in a 2009 U.S.-Peru trade deal,
which, like the TPP, is supposed to ensure
internationally-recognized labor benchmarks.
Workers' rights in TPP countries, especially Vietnam, have
been a key concern for U.S. Democratic lawmakers, many of whom
fear the trade deal will eliminate U.S. jobs partly because of
lower labor standards overseas. ID:nL2N0X42BX
Some trade diplomats from TPP nations doubted whether
ministers could produce a detailed agreement by Friday. One
option would be to reach an in-principle deal and then finalize
details later, one official said.
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Factbox on outstanding issues: ID:nL1N103036
Graphic on TPP trade flows: http://link.reuters.com/vyf35w
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