TPP negotiations continue without US (Source: Vietstock.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - The chief negotiatorsfrom the 11 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries met in Hakone, KanagawaPrefecture, southwest of Tokyo, on July 12 to discuss how to bring the regionalfree trade deal into effect following the withdrawal of the United States, theJapanese Kyodo News reported.
The meeting, to run for at least two days,follows their trade ministers' meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) in Vietnam in May, where they agreed to launch aprocess to assess options to bring the TPP into force expeditiously.
According to current regulations, the TPP cancome into force after the countries that account for 85 percent of the original12 signatories' combined gross domestic product (GDP) complete their domesticprocedures.
Since the United States alone represents morethan 60 percent of the initial members' GDP, it is impossible to bring the pactinto effect under present terms.
The chief negotiators are determined to discusspossible options for the deal before their leaders gather in November for anAPEC forum in Vietnam.
Nobuteru Ishihara, Japan’s Minister for EconomicRevitalisation, Total Reform of Social Security and Tax, and Economic andFiscal Policy, told a pressconference on July 11 that the discussion in Hakone will not be the final onebefore November's summit. The chief negotiators are likely to meet again inSeptember.
Japan, the largest economy among the 11, hopesto reach an agreement to bring the TPP into effect, as it took years ofnegotiations before it was signed in February 2016.
However, some countries may call for freshnegotiations on the content, including tariffs.
The Japanese minister said that Japan wants tomove forward discussions toward the early implementation of the TPP, includinghow to bring the United States back.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced thecountry's pullout from the TPP soon after he took office in January, saying themultilateral pact hurts American jobs and that he prefers bilateral tradenegotiations.
The TPP was signed by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia,Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, coveringaround 40 percent of the global economy. - VNA
VNA
