A FRUSTRATED Australia and New Zealand have directly challenged the Obama administration to tear down protectionist trade barriers for agriculture to help reinject momentum into a stalling Pacific Rim free trade deal.
As negotiations between trade ministers from the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries looked likely to drag on beyond Thursday's deadline in Atlanta, Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb urged the United States to take a leadership role by opening up dairy and sugar markets to foreign competition.
Mr Robb held two face-to-face meetings with US Trade Representative Mike Froman on Wednesday and laid out the Turnbull government's conditions for signing a deal.
The US is pressuring Australia to increase intellectual property protections for new-age pharmaceutical drugs, known as biologics, beyond the existing five years. Mr Robb has responded that Australia's system adequately balances incentivising drug innovators and ensuring medicines are affordable.
"I came to lower protection so I get frustrated if we are talking about increasing protection in the case of biologics or see no reduction in other areas," Mr Robb said.
Mr Robb and his New Zealand counterpart, Tim Groser, view the US as the potential key trend-setter in encouraging other TPP countries, including Japan, Canada and Mexico, in going the extra yard to strip away trade barriers and seal the TPP.
Mr Robb is concerned the US government is hamstrung by edgy Congress members threatening to vote against the TPP if it is perceived to harm American dairy and sugar farmers.
On the other hand, Australia's push to increase its 87,000 tonne sugar quota in the US gained the backing of 45 Congress members who signed a letter to Mr Froman urging him to "significantly expand US sugar imports".
