The United States maintained it hopes to seal an ambitious trade pact on schedule by year-end despite resistance in some countries and the absence of President Barack Obama from a regional summit that is ironing out differences on the pact.

US Trade Representative Michael Froman said today that world trade ministers may discuss the US-proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization meeting that starts on December 3, with a goal of reaching a deal by year-end.

But several outstanding issues remain, he told reporters at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, citing issues ranging from intellectual property to state-owned enterprises, labour and the environment. The WTO meeting will also be held on Bali.

The three-year-old TPPA talks, now involving 12 nations, are aimed at establishing a free-trade bloc that would stretch from Vietnam to Chile to Japan, encompassing 800 million people, about a third of world trade and nearly 40% of the global economy.

A major goal of the Obama administration, the TPPA would tear down trade barriers in areas such as government procurement and set standards for workers' rights, environmental protection and intellectual property rights.

Obama had hoped to settle the outstanding issues in discussions with other leaders at the Apec meeting but was forced to cancel his visit because of the fiscal standoff and partial government shutdown in Washington.

The TPPA, by seeking unprecedented access to domestic markets, is proving highly sensitive in developing countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam, whose political systems could be shaken by intrusions in areas such as government procurement and state-owned enterprises.

Japanese news agency Kyodo said leaders of countries involved in the TPPA negotiations, including Japan, will reiterate a pledge on Tuesday to conclude a deal within the year, saying they have made "significant progress" at the Apec summit.

The leaders' statement is unlikely to state that the 12 TPPA countries have agreed in principle on the pact, but is expected instead to say they are "on track" to meet the envisioned deadline, Kyodo reported.

Proponents call the TPPA, the most ambitious trade pact since the demise of the Doha round of global talks, a "high-standard" agreement to eliminate tariffs and tackle an unprecedented range of non-tariff barriers that restrict growth.

Obama has touted the deal by saying that 5,000 US jobs are created for each extra $1 billion in exports created under the pact.

For the United States, the TPPA would complement its shift of diplomatic and military resources to Asia to tap the region's fast growth and balance the growing influence of China, which has not joined the pact.

To its opponents, including a range of advocacy groups globally, the TPPA represents an encroachment of US economic might that gives big corporations unprecedented powers to challenge national policies in the name of free trade.

The TPPA is more intrusive than other trade pacts, and seeks to regulate sensitive areas such as government procurement, intellectual property and the role of state-owned enterprises as well as giving corporations more rights to sue governments.

In TPPA nations such as Malaysia, Japan, and Vietnam, reform-minded leaders are seen as using the pact as external leverage to break down vested interests and force liberalisation of protected, inefficient sectors.

The Singapore Straits Times said a draft statement to be released today shows that leaders will likely report that TPP talks are not "substantively finished".

– Reuters

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