Japan Sticks To Timetable For TPP Decision

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

21 January 2011

Banri Kaieda, Japan’s new Trade Minister after Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s recent ministerial reshuffle, has confirmed that the government will not bring forward its deadline for deciding whether to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Kan had previously said that the government would make a decision on whether or not to enter into the on-going TPP negotiations by June this year, after it had been able to put together proposed reforms in, and overcome opposition from, its agricultural sector. He said that his job, in the interim, was to prepare so that the decision could be made.

The United States is planning to join the original TPP signatories - New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei – together with Australia, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia in an expanded agreement, the text of which could be ready by the time the US hosts the APEC summit in November 2011.

At the recent meeting of the US-Japan Trade Forum, the Japanese delegation was provided with an update on the progress of the TPP process and related issues. The next round of TPP negotiations is scheduled for Santiago in February, but it is now unlikely that Japan will take part.

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