跨太平洋夥伴協議仍在協商之中大綱

The United States, Japan, Canada, Vietnam and eight other nations have been working on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership for years, and were hoping to wrap up an agreement during this week's negotiations in Atlanta.

The issues include Washington's push to extend patent protection on a promising new class of drugs for longer than other nations want. Other disputes include dairy exporter New Zealand seeking greater access to Canada's dairy market, and squabbles between the United States and Japan over auto industry trade.

Resolving these and other disputes is made more difficult by pending elections in several key nations, where some workers and farmers worry that increased trade will mean decreased employment. Many businesses support expanded trade as a way to open new markets to exports.來自美國、加拿大、澳大利亞、新西蘭、日本、智利、新加坡、越南等國的代表過去幾天來在美國的亞特蘭大就跨太平洋貿易伙伴協定進行了進一步的磋商。

各國之間存在的分歧包括美國方面希望能夠對一些新研發出的藥物實行一定時期的知識產權保護，但是其他參與協商的國家希望這一時期不要那麼長。新西蘭方面則希望其奶製品能夠更容易進入加拿大市場；美國和日本之間在汽車貿易方面也還存在着分歧，如此等等。

上述各類問題的解決有可能會因爲不只一個國家的大選即將來臨而變得更爲複雜和艱難，因爲各國國內的一些選民擔心貿易幅度的加大將意味着工作機會的流失。