“The Canadians are negotiating as if there’s no election,” he said in an interview with the New Zealand Herald, published Wednesday. “Everyone is really trying.”
As iPolitics reported Tuesday, there isn’t really anything stopping the Conservatives from concluding the talks in the final weeks of the federal election.
And with the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership trying to reach a final agreement in Atlanta next week, Groser identified three familiar stumbling blocks: market access for both dairy and autos, and patent extensions for biologic pharmaceuticals.
Though trade has factored very little into the federal election campaign thus far, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper surprised some by saying in last week’s economic debate that the Canadian auto sector might not like everything in TPP — but would be hurt more by being shut out of global supply chains.
“That would be a disaster. We’re going to make sure we get the best deal for that and all of our sectors,” he said.
Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and Japan held auto-specific negotiations in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday that failed to result in a deal. But the trade publication Inside U.S. Trade reported that enough got accomplished to move ahead with the ministerial meeting in Atlanta.
When it comes to dairy, however — New Zealand’s primary offensive interest — Groser signaled they weren’t having much luck getting Canada to make acceptable market access offers in the supply managed sector.
“Basically, the situation is that I and my negotiators can see a very good deal for New Zealand in everything except dairy and I don’t know to characterize the deal there because it’s not a deal we could accept,” he told the Herald.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca/
Author: BJ Siekierski
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