TPP Agreement Meets Three Major Differences, Vietnam Textile Industry Enjoys Zero Tariff Most Benefit

The new round of negotiations ended, stuck in the agricultural products, automobile industry, intellectual property rights and other issues.

The new round of Ministerial Conference on p Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) was held in July 31st.

Hawaii Maui ended, the negotiators failed to make breakthroughs in key issues such as market access and intellectual property protection of agricultural products and automobile industry, and no agreement was reached.

This round of TPP ministerial negotiations began in July 28th, involving 12 countries.

Michael Frohman, US trade representative, said at the closing news conference that significant progress has been made in the past week's negotiations, but there are still a few pending issues that need further consultation.

New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groze said there are still two or more thorny problems in TPP negotiations, one of which is market access for dairy products.

According to the information from many sources, Canada faces a federal election in October this year, and the government may not be willing to open the dairy market to a greater extent. This has also led to the US and Japan not willing to make concessions in the market access negotiations of sensitive agricultural products such as sugar and rice.

However, Canada

Minister Ed Fast denied that the country's election impede progress in the TPP negotiations, saying Canada will still actively participate in the negotiations.

As the two largest economies in the negotiations, the United States and Japan have not yet reached agreement on the import tariffs of key agricultural products and tariffs on automobile trade.

Andrew Rob, Minister of trade and investment in Australia, said there were major differences between the United States, Japan, Canada and Mexico in terms of tariffs and rules of origin for automobile trade.

In addition, the United States and other TPP members have not reached an agreement on the duration of intellectual property protection in biopharmaceutical industry.

The Obama administration had planned to complete the TPP negotiations as soon as possible and submit the TPP agreement to the US Congress before the end of the year.

Since the president of the United States has to notify congress at least 90 days before signing the trade agreement, the delay in the completion of the TPP negotiations means that the deliberations of the US Congress on the TPP agreement are likely to drag on to the beginning of 2016, which will inevitably be influenced by the election stage of the US presidential election.

Ernest Bauer, a senior adviser to the center for strategic and international studies of the US think tank, said that if the US Congress could not ratify the TPP agreement before the first quarter of 2016,

The hope of the government's approval of the TPP agreement will be slim.

What are the differences?

Canada is not happy with dairy products.

New Zealand warned that New Zealand would not accept the agreement if it failed to break the high level of protection of dairy products.

But in the open dairy market access, New Zealand faces strong resistance from Canada.

Canada faces a federal election in October this year, and the government may not be willing to open the dairy market to a greater extent. This has also led to the US and Japan not willing to make concessions in the market access negotiations for sensitive agricultural products such as sugar and rice.

Mexico is very resistant to the automobile industry.

Andrew Rob, Minister of trade and investment in Australia, said there were major differences between the United States, Japan, Canada and Mexico in terms of tariffs and rules of origin for automobile trade.

Japan hopes to fully integrate the Asian supply network of TOYOTA and other auto giants into the TPP framework and call it "creating a huge value chain", but this has been strongly resisted by Mexico, the world's fourth largest auto exporter.

Japan demanded that the United States immediately withdraw the proportion of Japanese car parts in the import tariffs. The United States has promised to reduce the proportion of Japanese vehicle parts by at least half, but this does not satisfy Japan's appetite and expectation.

The pharmaceutical industry is isolated and helpless.

The difference in new drug data protection is that American pharmaceutical companies hope to get a 12 year protection period, but by contrast, Australia has only 5 years of protection, and Chile has no protection period at all.

Reuters cited non US sources saying that the United States was isolated on the issue of new drug protection and that other countries were on the other side.

The source also said that there was no sign of loosening of the parties and insisted that it was their "red line".

Vietnam is most benefited?

Experts believe that if TPP is signed, the biggest winner will be Vietnam, because Vietnam is the most important.

The industry will be able to enjoy zero tariffs in the future, far below the current rate of 17% to 32%, and the price will be highly competitive, so Vietnam's exports are expected to grow by about 32%.

Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian trade centre, said that the biggest beneficiaries of TPP's signing would be

A large number of investors will pour into the region, and then Malaysia and Japan.

Vietnam's largest export industry is the clothing and footwear of the textile industry. After zero tax, it will stimulate the export of the textile industry and promote the entry of foreign direct investment.