Japan's Abe says TPP would have strategic significance if China joined

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the pan-Pacific agreement struck in the United States on Monday, which would liberalise trade in 40 percent of the world economy, though he said bringing China into the deal in future would increase its strategic significance.

"The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) establishes in the Asia-Pacific a free, fair and open international economic system with countries that share the basic values of freedom, democracy, basic human rights and the rule of law," Abe told a nationally televised news conference.