Malaysia Says Pacific Trade Pact Hard to Complete This Year
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Talks on a 12-nation Pacific trade pact may be hard to finalize this year after a deadline for completion was missed last month, a Malaysian minister said.
“It’s tough,” Mustapa Mohamed, Malaysia’s international trade and industry minister, said in an interview at his office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. “It’s difficult to say when” talks could be wrapped up, he said. “You cannot rush into things. This is a very big trade pact, going beyond the conventional areas of tariffs. It’s natural that it’s taken quite some time.”