Japan says Pacific Rim pact offers best trade agreements

TOKYO, April 20, (AP): Japanese officials are indicating Tokyo intends to pursue the TransPacific Partnership trade pact despite the US withdrawal from the agreement.

In comments reported by the national broadcaster NHK on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said he believed the TPP trade talks would offer greater advantages to Japan than bilateral negotiations with the US.

Aso made the comments at a conference in New York City.

“There will be a discussion about possibly starting an 11-member TPP without America at our APEC meeting in May,” he said, declining to give further details.

His remarks appeared to allude to US Vice President Mike Pence’s comments, after meeting with Aso in Tokyo earlier this week, that the US considered the TPP a “thing of the past.” Pence said the Trump administration believed that only bilateral trade negotiations would yield “winwin” outcomes. During their talks on Tuesday, Pence and Aso launched a new “economic dialogue” that will consider ways the countries can strengthen the economic side of their alliance.

Japanese officials who briefed reporters after the talks indicated the two sides did not share a consensus on sticking to bilateral trade deals.

“We must continue to discuss what will be best for our country,” Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, told lawmakers Thursday.

He said Japan had explained to the US the importance of the TPP in both strategic and economic terms, and he believed the US understood that stance.

“It seems the US is not easily going to change its position,” he said.

Former President Barack Obama’s administration championed the TPP, saying it would set a “gold standard” for modern trade rules, with stringent requirements for intellectual property, labor and environmental protections.