Ahead of Trump talks, Japan’s Shinzo Abe admits TPP trade deal hits difficulties
“To be frank, I recognise that [the TPP] has hit difficult circumstances,” Abe told a session of a special upper house committee deliberating the pact. “But that doesn’t mean it’s over,” he said.
Mitch McConnell, Republican leader of the US Senate, has already ruled out a vote on the pact before Trump is sworn in on January 20, and a senior White House official indicated on Friday that US President Barack Obama will no longer press Congress on the issue.
Obama had previously said he would strive to get the trade deal ratified before the end of his term, but that was before US voters defied most polls to pick Trump over Democrat and general free trade proponent Hillary Clinton in last week’s election.
“Now, amid a change of government in the United States, is the time for our country to take the lead in bringing [the TPP] into force quickly,” Abe said.
Katsuyuki Kawai, one of Abe’s special advisers, left Japan on Monday to meet Trump’s team and lay the groundwork for Abe’s meeting on Thursday with the president-elect.
“I will directly tell those at the centre of the new administration of Prime Minister Abe’s desire to quickly build a personal relationship of trust with President-elect Trump,” Kawai told reporters at Narita airport near Tokyo. Abe has said it is Japan’s “calling” to be the first signatory to ratify the pact signed in February. According to analysts, China – notably absent from the TPP – could have more sway over trade rules in the Asia-Pacific Region if the pact fails.
The upper house special committee on the TPP dug into deliberations on the pact on Monday after it was introduced to a plenary session on Friday. The bill to ratify the pact had passed the lower house the day prior. Japan’s opposition parties, some of which walked out on the lower house vote, have questioned the wisdom of continuing the push to ratify the TPP given uncertainty over whether it will ever come into force.
The government’s top spokesman said Monday that Tokyo will not change its stance on the deal, dismissing the idea floated by Mexico that the other 11 signatories could go forward without the participation of the United States.
Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told Reuters news agency last Thursday that the signatories could discuss changing a clause in the pact that prevents it from being brought into force without US ratification.
“For [Japan], there is no way that we will change our existing thinking,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference. Abe said on Monday that he will also tell Trump his thoughts on economic, diplomatic and security issues. Trump claimed during his election campaign that Japan and other US allies are not paying enough for the costs of stationing the US military overseas.