It is also meant to tackle tough issues such as intellectual property, services, government procurement, labour and environmental standards. Since its members include economies such as Vietnam and Malaysia whose supply chains depend on cheap labour, negotiations were always likely to be tricky. When Japan, which likes to spoil its farmers, joined in 2013, they became even trickier. But after 19 rounds of negotiations, considerable progress has been made. There is a strong push to finish it by the end of this year, though a similar deadline last year was missed.