Japan
The Japanese government on Tuesday approved the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact without the United States. Ministers from 11 participating countries are scheduled to gather in Chile on Thursday to sign the deal, paving the way for it to take effect in early 2019. Japan’s TPP minister Toshimitsu Motegi is expected to attend the signing ceremony.
Ministers from 16 East Asian countries negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership made progress at a meeting in Singapore Saturday but many gaps remain.
The Japanese government is still hoping for a multilateral Asia Pacific order that includes the United States. Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso confided to US Vice President Mike Pence in early February that Japan encourages a US return to the TPP.
In 2018, the Trump administration will continue efforts to build stronger, better and fairer trading relationships with Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, New Zealand and Brunei.
It is possible to effectively integrate the Paris Agreement into new trade deals, including CETA and the upcoming JEFTA with Japan.
Leaders of the European Union and Japan will meet to sign a free trade deal by summer if everything goes smoothly, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.
Japan’s support for the belt and road is contingent on shaping China into a responsible global player.
A Japanese official speaking in Washington discussed conditions for Japan’s participation in China’s BRI project, while also suggesting China seek a partner role in the emerging ’Indo-Pacific Strategy’.
Argentina and Japan are moving ahead with a bilateral investment treaty.
Japan’s chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Kazuyoshi Umemoto, told Reuters that an agreement among the remaining 11 member nations, set to be signed next month, may have had an impact on the United States.
Thailand has entered into negotiations for a number of free trade agreements (FTA). Its first FTA was the Asean Free Trade Area, signed in 1992. The country has six FTAs with India, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Peru and Chile.
Four countries — the US, Japan, India and Australia — could join forces to set up an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative in an attempt to counter Beijing’s growing influence, the Australian Financial Review reported Sunday.
Bilateral ties between Tokyo and Oslo are set to converge, with multiple areas for cooperation.
Auto workers and manufacturers are rejecting assertions by Canada’s trade minister that the country won major access for them into the highly protected Japanese market in the recently rebooted Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Japan’s role in RCEP negotiations appears to have been shaped by its participation in the TPP. Japan is now championing for expanded intellectual property right provisions which may block access to affordable medicines
China’s economic success lays bare an uncomfortable historical truth: No one who preaches ‘free trade’ really practices it.
The European Union is currently negotiating a series of new free trade agreements that would have a negative impact on consumer rights, environmental standards and democratic principles.
The eighth round of negotiations on the Turkey-Japan FTA, which was launched with an initiative of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan back in 2014, was held in Ankara.
The leaders of three of Asia’s biggest economies will aim to advance a free-trade agreement and economic cooperation, putting territorial rows and military tensions aside at an expected trilateral summit in April, Chinese diplomatic observers said.
The intensification of negotiations between the EU and Japan came in response to broader geopolitical developments such as the rise of China, Trump, and Brexit.
