ATLANTA, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Pacific trading partners remained
deadlocked over protections for next-generation medicines on
Saturday after a long night of negotiations, potentially
extending talks on a sweeping trade pact into a fifth day,
sources close to the talks said.
Some delegates involved in talks on the 12-nation
Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will create a free trade zone
covering 40 percent of the world economy, were looking to
re-book flights for Sunday in preparation for another day of
negotiations.
"It's very probable," one official said of the chance that
talks would stretch into Sunday. Another said the timeline was
not yet clear, with negotiations going down to the wire over
intellectual property protections on biological drugs.
Trade ministers, most of whom arrived in the southern U.S.
city of Atlanta on Wednesday, had initially hoped to wrap up
talks by Thursday.
A push by the United States to set a longer period of
exclusivity for drug makers who develop biological drugs like
Genentech's Avastin cancer-treatment has run into opposition
from other TPP economies.
The United States allows pharmaceutical companies an
exclusive period of 12 years to use clinical data behind the
approval for a new biological drug.
The Obama administration had previously proposed lowering
that threshold to seven years but has pushed a proposal for an
eight-year minimum in the TPP talks in Atlanta.
Drug companies argue that a longer period is needed to
create an incentive for developing treatments for diseases such
as cancer and arthritis.
Australia, along with others such as New Zealand and Chile,
have been unwilling to offer more than five years protection for
the medicines since longer terms will push up the cost of
state-subsidized medical programs.
The impasse is holding up a deal on dairy trade, the main
other sticking point in the talks. New Zealand, home to the
world's biggest dairy exporter Fonterra FCG.NZ , is insisting
on increased access to U.S., Canadian and Japanese markets.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose party faces a
general election later this month, said the talks had made
progress.
"Let me assure everyone that we will only conclude a deal
that is in the best interests of our country," he told reporters
in Montreal.
Harper's Conservatives are on course to win the most seats
in the Oct. 19 election but may lose their majority, and the
main opposition party has said it would not feel itself bound by
any TPP deal that Harper negotiated.
Canada's parliament also would have to approve any TPP pact.