UPDATE 3-U.S. hosts meeting next week in bid to wrap up Pacific trade pact

(Adds comments from Chile)
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The United States has called
ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Pacific trade deal
for a meeting Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 in a bid to finish the pact, a
key part of the U.S. administration's engagement with Asia.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) seeks to cut trade
barriers and set common standards for 40 percent of the world
economy and will be a legacy-defining achievement for U.S.
President Barack Obama.
The U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement that
ministers would meet in Atlanta. Chief negotiators from
countries including Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and
Brunei will meet from Sept. 26-29.
"Trade ministers and negotiators last met in July and have
been making good progress toward resolving the limited number of
outstanding issues," USTR said in a statement.
The last ministerial talks, in Hawaii, stumbled over dairy
trade, monopoly periods for next-generation, biologic drugs and
rules of origin for autos.
Officials close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that
two days of talks on the threshold for local content in auto
trade between the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico had
made progress, and they aimed to reach a final deal next week.

Mexico and Canada, U.S. partners in the 20-year-old North
American Free Trade Agreement, have built automotive supply
chains based on a threshold of 62.5 percent local content, and
objected to having a much lower threshold in the TPP, which they
feared would favor Asian auto parts makers such as Thailand.
Another sticking point is how long to protect data used to
develop biologic drugs. Washington is pushing for 12 years
protection, much longer than the current protection periods in
countries including Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
Chile's head of international trade told Reuters that
although conditions were now present to finalize the TPP, talks
would likely still go down to the wire.
"You never know until the last minute if it is possible to
find a balance or not," Andres Rebolledo said in a telephone
interview.
Major dairy exporter New Zealand has made it clear it will
only sign up to a deal which expands market access, putting
pressure on the United States and Canada - in the midst of an
election campaign - to allow more dairy imports.
"Canada continues to have robust discussions with our
negotiating partners and stakeholders on a range of issues.
Discussions have been positive, but difficult issues remain," a
spokesman for Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast said.