Ottawa to host to mid-session ‘intersessional’ TPP round

The Harper government announced on Friday that Ottawa will play host next week to an intersessional Trans-paciffic Partnership negotiating round on the agreement’s labour chapter, which is odd because it won’t be in between sessions. 

“To continue to move negotiations forward and resolve outstanding issues, TPP members have agreed to a regular schedule of technical work between official negotiating rounds,” the government press release says.

“Several intersessional meetings have been scheduled, including one in Ottawa from August 26 to 29, 2013, where discussions will focus on labour provisions.”

What’s odd about this is that the nineteenth full round of negotiation between the TPP’s 12 members, which began Thursday in Brunei and conclude on August 30, will be going on concurrently. 

“Canada is pleased to be hosting an intersessional meeting to keep the momentum behind these negotiations moving forward. This meeting is further proof of Canada’s leadership on the world stage in favour of trade liberalization,” Trade Minister Ed Fast is quoted in the release.

Minister Fast’s office didn’t respond to a request for an explanation as to why they need to maintain the “momentum” in the middle of a negotiating round on the other side of the world.

But one possibility might be that ministerial meetingsover the last two days in Brunei confirmed they’ve reached an impasse in the labour chapter; the Ottawa mid-session intersessional could be an attempt to build a consensus around one particular vision. 

While in Brunei, the press release says, Fast had bilateral meetings with United States Trade Representative, Michael Froman; Mexican Secretary of the Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo; Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed; and the Japanese Minister of State for Economic Revitalization.

August 23, 2013

Source: Ipolitics.ca