Fresh TPP pact may be signed in February

TOKYO: A signing ceremony will mark a formal agreement on the new trade pact, in which 11 countries will participate.

The Japanese government plans to accelerate efforts to persuade Canada, which is the only participa­ting TPP country that has shown reluctance on coming to an early agreement. If the arrangements fail, the Japanese government is eyeing the possibility of the remaining 10 countries signing, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The new trade deal is called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agree­ment for Trans-Pacific Par­t­ner­ship (CPTPP). The signing ceremony will be attended by ministe­rial-­level officials from each signatory country, including Toshimitsu Motegi, minister in charge of economic revitalisation. It will be held sometime from late February to early March next year in the Chilean capital of Santiago

Later, the CPTPP will go into effect 60 days after six out of the 11 countries finish domestic procedures such as obtaining parliamentary approval of the pact. The Japanese government intends to submit a draft plan for the new trade deal to the Diet in 2018 at the earliest to obtain approval, and aims to put it into effect within 2019.

The US withdrawal from the TPP in January this year made it impossible to expect the pacts implementation with the original 12 countries. Therefore, the remaining 11 countries began fresh negotiations and reached a deal in November.

Under the new deal, the participating countries will freeze items in some fields such as intellectual pro­perty rights, the inclusion of which the US had strongly called for.

They will also maintain almost the same number of goods as in the previous TPP pact for which tariffs will be eliminated in the future.

On the other hand, during nego­tiations, Canada strongly insisted on including a preferential provision to protect Canada’s cultural sectors, and confronted other countries about that. After the participating countries reached a broad agreement, they decided to continue to discuss the issue later.

The Japanese government plans to make final arrangements for realising the signing ceremony by shortly dispatching Motegi to each country while trying to convince Canada.

Participating countries other than Canada have already agreed to sign the new pact sometime early next year. According to sources close to the talks, calls for signing the pact at an early date are increasing to avoid a situation in which momentum for the TPP wanes due to prolonged negotiations.

The Japanese government will closely look at Canada’s moves while eyeing the possibility of signing with 10 countries, prioritising an early implementation.

However, Canada’s gross domestic product is the second largest after Japan’s among the 11 TPP countries. Without Canada, the pact’s econo­mic effects will be significantly reduced, a source close to the government said. — Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network