Japan To Stand Ground on TPP Says Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his resolve Thursday to achieve an early conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks, but he also said Japan will not easily concede to the United States in key parallel talks.

“We are having tough talks with the United States in the areas of agriculture and automobiles…We will not make any easy concessions,” Abe said in a speech at a meeting of corporate executives and public policy experts, in which he also said his “Abenomics” stimulus policy mix will fail unless smaller companies regain sufficient confidence.

Japan and the United States, two leading members of the 12-nation TPP talks, which also involve Singapore and Australia, have been struggling to resolve their differences over tariffs and other issues in bilateral talks in parallel with the full TPP negotiations.

Without a deal between the two major economies, the TPP countries failed this month at a ministerial meeting to achieve a broad agreement on a free trade area that would account for around 40 percent of global economic output, as aimed for by the 12 members’ leaders in October. They will continue talks into next year.

“We must resolve every issue for ambitious targets,” Abe said, suggesting it will require the leaders of the negotiating countries to make political decisions at the very last stage of negotiations.

via Mainichi

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.