Japan’s parliament, the Diet, last Friday ratified the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership — a symbolic gesture at this point as President-Elect Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his opposition to TPP and said he will pull out of TPP in January once he takes office.
The upper house of the Japan’s legislative body voted 165-70 to approve TPP following the prior approval of the lower House of Representatives. Japanese Prime Minister Abe has acknowledged that, without the United States, TPP would be meaningless. However, Abe stressed the importance of ratification, even if TPP cannot go forward without the United States’ participation. Abe said Japan should be on the forefront of initiatives like TPP to encourage free trade and beat back rising protectionism around the world, according to a Japan Times report. “It’s very important to us, as a country, to show ideal rules that we believe the world should aim for,” Abe said.
TPP was agreed to by all involved countries in October 2015 and signed in February this year. Governments from all the countries were to vote for ratification of the trade pact. In March, Malaysia was the first to ratify TPP.
President-Elect Trump has expressed his support for bilateral trade agreements with individual nations, but whether Japan and other nations in TPP will be interested after five long years of negotiations on TPP remains to be seen.
