TPP trade deadlock: Japan leans on US to break impasse

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/03/tpp-trade-deadlock-japan-us-to-break-impasse

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Japan called on the US to find a way to break a deadlock over protections for next-generation medicines on Saturday, as talks on a sweeping trade pact were extended for another 24 hours.

Negotiators were up all night trying to broker a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will create a free trade zone covering 40% of the world economy.

A push by the US to set a longer period of exclusivity for drug makers who develop biological drugs such as Genentech’s Avastin cancer-treatment has run into opposition from other TPP economies and is holding up a broader deal.

Japanese economy minister Akira Amari said he had agreed to a US request to stay on in Atlanta for another 24 hours, but said the US had to find a way forward on biologics.

“I said there were two conditions for us to accept that proposal: first, this would be the last chance, in other words there had to be certainty of getting a deal on pharmaceuticals; second, because of the schedule, Japan could not accept any further extension,” Amari told reporters.

Related: Trans-Pacific Partnership could pose risk to public healthcare, leaked draft shows

The US allows pharmaceutical companies an exclusive period of 12 years to use clinical data behind the approval for a new biological drug. The Obama administration had previously proposed lowering that threshold to seven years but has pushed a proposal for an eight-year minimum in the TPP talks in Atlanta.

Australia, along with others such as New Zealand and Chile, have been unwilling to offer more than five years protection for the medicines since longer terms will push up the cost of state-subsidized medical programs.

Drug companies argue that a longer period is needed to create an incentive for developing treatments for diseases such as cancer and arthritis.

The impasse is holding up a deal on dairy trade, the main other sticking point in the talks. New Zealand, home to the world’s biggest dairy exporter Fonterra, is insisting on increased access to US, Canadian and Japanese markets.

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, whose party faces a general election later this month, said the talks had made progress.

“Let me assure everyone that we will only conclude a deal that is in the best interests of our country,” he told reporters in Montreal.

Harper’s Conservatives are on course to win the most seats in the 19 October election but may lose their majority, and the main opposition party has said it would not feel itself bound by any TPP deal that Harper negotiated.

Canada’s parliament also would have to approve any TPP pact.

TPP trade ministers, most of whom arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday, had initially hoped to wrap up talks by Thursday.