TPP nations agree not to renegotiate deal

[chahlley]

(Hot News Today • Tuesday 13 September 2016)

Japan aIms for early ratIficatIon

TPP nations agree  not to renegotiate deal

TOKYO — The 12 countries that signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact earlier this year agreed yesterday they will not renegotiate the deal, Japanese Economic Minister Nobuteru Ishihara said.

The Minister for Economic Revitalisation, Total Reform of Social Security and Tax, and Economic and Fiscal Policy also told reporters that the 12 nations confirmed they will move ahead with domestic processes quickly towards the implementation of the United States-led trade agreement.

Mr Ishihara’s remarks came after he joined a meeting with ambassadors and other representatives of 11 countries about the trade matter, held at the official residence of American Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy in Tokyo.

The gathering was held amid growing speculation that the TPP will not take effect despite the signing in February, as candidates for the US presidency — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton — have both criticised the pact. The two argue that it would kill American jobs and does not guard against currency manipulation, among other things. Mr Trump has vowed to withdraw from the TPP while Mrs Clinton has suggested that it could be renegotiated.

At the outset of the meeting, Ms Kennedy said US President Barack Obama has pledged to make efforts to get Congress to endorse the TPP by the end of this year, according to the Japanese Cabinet Office.

Mr Ishihara told reporters after the gathering in the embassy of the American envoy that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government will work to achieve an early ratification of the free trade pact at the upcoming extraordinary parliamentary session expected to be convened on Sept 26.

Japan’s participation in the TPP is a cornerstone of Mr Abe’s economic growth strategy, one of the three pillars of his “Abenomics” policy mix, designed to bolster the nation’s exportdriven economy. Singapore, as one of the 12 signatories, has also been pushing for the ratification of the TPP.

While visiting Washington DC last month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described the TPP as an “economic game changer” for the US, noting that the ratification of the TPP was vital for American leadership and credibility in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr Lee add that every TPP signatory had to make sacrifices to accept the agreement, and there is no appetite to reopen negotiations again with “no prospect of doing better and every chance of having it fall apart”.

Covering about 40 per cent of the global economy, the TPP groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.  AGENCIES