Surprisingly the Abbott gov didn't just bend over and let the corporations take control. I guess with the gov on the electoral ropes, the last thing it needs is to agree to a corporate assault on Australia. Especially when those corporations are wanting to attack our health care system.
“Australia had made some excellent progress but unfortunately some difficult issues were not resolved,” he said on Saturday.
Andrew Robb has laid the blame for the failure to come to an agreement with the “big four” economies of the US, Canada, Japan and Mexico. “The sad thing is, 98% is concluded,” he said. “I don’t know how sticky it is.”
A dispute between Japan and North America over the car trade, New Zealand digging in over dairy products and no agreement on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs had contributed to the deadlock, sources told Reuters.
Trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating the TPP, which would stretch from Japan to Chile and cover 40% of the world economy, delayed until 4pm local time a news conference that was originally scheduled for 1:30pm on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Three sources involved in the talks said a last-minute breakthrough was unlikely due to issues with dairy and auto trade and a stand-off over biologic drugs, which are made from living cells.
“It would be very difficult to arrive at a deal,” one of the officials said, requesting anonymity because discussions were ongoing.
Failure to seal the agreement will be a setback for the US president, Barack Obama, given the trade pact’s stance as the economic arm of the administration’s pivot to Asia and an opportunity to balance out China’s influence in the region. more
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