BREAKING NEWS: TPP postponed to next year

Just a few days have passed since Wikileaks published the draft (secret) text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP, here), and even less since the IPKat and its friends provided an analysis of it (here, here, here, here, here).

Via an invaluable Katfriend comes the news that today the ministers and heads of delegation for the TPP countries released the following statement:

"We, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam, have just completed a four-day Ministerial meeting in Singapore where we have made substantial progress toward completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. 

Over the course of this meeting, we identified potential “landing zones” for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text.  We will continue to work with flexibility to finalize these text issues as well as market access issues.  

For all TPP countries, an ambitious, comprehensive and high-standard agreement that achieves the goals established in Honolulu in 2011 is critical for creating jobs and promoting growth, providing opportunity for our citizens and contributing to regional integration and the strengthening of the multilateral trading system. 

Therefore, we have decided to continue our intensive work in the coming weeks toward such an agreement.  We will also further our consultations with stakeholders and engage in our respective political processes.

Following additional work by negotiators, we intend to meet again next month."

According to a research published on the website of the Office of the US Trade Representative, the TPP "is the most significant trade negotiation in a generation, and promises significant economic benefits." You will wonder: What are these benefits? Wonder no further: you can find out here.

UPDATE: via another Katfriend comes the further news that yesterday Wikileaks published new documents that outline the positions that participant countries have on various issues. You can access them here.