After WTO, expectations grow for Trans-Pacific trade deal

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After WTO, expectations grow for Trans-Pacific trade deal

By Rachel Armstrong and Masayuki Kitano SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Expectations are growing that an ambitious trade pact between a dozen nations around the Pacific Rim may be wrapped up in 2-3 months, with signs that political desire for a deal is trumping a string of technical difficulties in drawing it up. Just days after the first World Trade Organisation trade reform deal was pushed through on Saturday, trade ministers from 12 countries are in closed-door talks in a Singapore hotel to try to tie up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Agreement would establish a free-trade bloc stretching from Vietnam to Chile and Japan, encompassing some 800 million people and almost 40 percent of the global economy. Just a few months ago a deal looked a long way off, with Japan only entering into the talks in July and many countries at odds over issues ranging from tariffs on farm produce to rules on Internet freedom and state-owned enterprises.

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