U.S. to hold TPP negotiations in Atlanta next week

The United States will host a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade ministers in Atlanta on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, preceded by a meeting of TPP chief negotiators from Sept. 26-29.    The United States will host a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade ministers in Atlanta on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, preceded by a meeting of TPP chief negotiators from Sept. 26-29.
   Trade ministers and negotiators last met in July and “have been making good progress toward resolving the limited number of outstanding issues,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in a statement.
   In addition to the United States, other TPP member countries are Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam.
   The Obama administration has argued that TPP will go a long way to either reduce or eliminate tariffs for U.S.-produced goods, such as agricultural products, automotive parts, building products, chemicals, consumer goods, fish, footwear, forest products, high-tech instruments, health products, infrastructure materials, information technology, metals and ores, machinery products, minerals and fuels, and textiles, imported into the TPP countries.
   According to the a report released by the White House this summer, U.S.-manufactured footwear in TPP nations, for example, faces quotas and tariffs of more than 100 percent. According to USTR, the United States exported $824 million of footwear worldwide in 2014, and $370 million of that went to TPP countries.
   In another example, tariffs on U.S.-made building products in TPP countries are as high as 60 percent. TPP countries imported nearly $29 billion of the $46 billion in global U.S. exports of U.S. building products in 2014.