Australia won't sign up to the massive trans-Pacific partnership trade deal if it can't get a better deal for sugar farmers and clear up issues surrounding medicines and the rights of companies to sue governments.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says there's much tension around final negotiations on the $200 billion deal, being thrashed out in Hawaii this week.
"Every country just about has still got something on the table they're not satisfied with yet, as is the case with us," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
He pledged not to agree to a deal that didn't contain something for Australia's sugar farmers, who are seeking greater access to the US market.
But countries trying to defend their own industries were being very bullish about it, he said.
Mr Robb has yet to be convinced there needs to be any more than five years of data protection on medicine patents.
The US is pushing for 12 years because pharmaceutical companies were being sued when they tried to patent medicines using biological material.
"They're coming at it from that angle but that doesn't mean we have to fall into line and we're not going to," Mr Robb said.
There's also unrest in Australia over the possible inclusion of so-called investor-state dispute settlement clauses, which allow companies to sue governments over new laws that hit their profits.
Mr Robb said Australia was yet to agree to such a clause but was considering a modified version.
"We won't move on ISDS unless we're satisfied there's a carve out, an exemption for public policy matters on health and the environment," he said.
Mr Robb noted Australia had made similar agreements with 28 countries over the past three decades and had only been sued once, by tobacco companies over the introduction of plain packaging.
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