Sydney (VNA) – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanhis leading a Vietnamese delegation to the Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) inAustralia to secure the effect of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Speaking at the opening ceremony on August 28, head of the Australian TPPnegotiation delegation Justin Brown expressed his hope that all the 11 nationswill reach a final agreement so that the trade deal spanning the Pacific willtake effect after the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting scheduled for November in Vietnam’scentral city of Da Nang
Although there are a number of hurdles, Australia commits to joining hands withthe remaining ten countries to make the agreement effective for mutual benefitsof the participants, he stressed.
Meanwhile, head of the Japanese delegation Kazuyoshi Umemoto said that the 11countries need to promote solidarity so that the TPP can come into force soon.
In the three-day meeting, the negotiators will discuss measures to amend theoriginal TPP document in accordance with the new context.
Once effective, the TPP will link 11 countries, including four of the world’stop 20 economies, with combined gross domestic product (GDP) of about 9.8trillion USD.
It would result in 19 new free trade agreements coming into force.
The TPP was signed in February 2016 by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan,Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
However, US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the world'sbiggest economy from the TPP soon after taking office in January 2017.-VNA