It was just over one year ago that the 12 nations involved in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership announced they had reached an agreement in principle and that agreement is still being reviewed by the governments of those 12 nations.

Ron Davidson, the Director of International Trade, Government and Media Relations with the Canadian Meat Council, says participation by the United States and Japan are critical components of that deal.

Ron Davidson-Canadian Meat Council:

Each of the 12 countries involved in the TPP are undertaking their domestic processes to approve that agreement.

Some countries are moving ahead quickly, others not so quickly.

I'm sure everyone is watching what is happening in the United States.

It's a major discussion in the current election campaign.

There is some prospect that that agreement could be passed between the time of the election in November and the new administration coming into place in January.

If it does not happen in that time period, there will probably be some months required in the United States for the new staff to come into place and for the new administration to become active.

If it doesn't get implemented in that period we could be seeing some delay in the implementation to much later in the year.

Mr Davidson says the current formula, as it's written in to the agreement, requires both the US and Japan to approve it.

He says it is conceivable that other nations could move forward with a deal based on that agreement without the US or Japan but, because the US and Japan are such big factors in every countries market access ambitions, that is something the other countries may not be interested in.