Pacific trade talks stall as ministers miss climate clause deadline
Negotiators in Singapore failed to lock a carbon-border clause into a regional pact, leaving a year of talks without a text that capitals can sign.
Ministers from twelve Pacific and South-East Asian economies left Singapore on Thursday without a draft they were prepared to initial, after a carbon-border clause split the room in the final hours.
Officials said the dispute was not over whether climate costs should be acknowledged, but over who would measure them and how quickly poorer exporters would have to comply. Two delegations asked for a five-year grace period; three others called that a loophole.
The host chair, trade minister Priya Menon, told reporters the talks would resume in November. “Nobody walked away,” she said. “They walked out to make phone calls.”
Business groups in the region had hoped a deal would cut overlapping rules of origin. Without a text, companies will keep filing the same shipment under two or three regimes.
