On Tuesday Tokyo turned down — at least for now — an Australian proposal to revise the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, saying a TPP deal without the U. S. is “meaningless.”
Tokyo said it will instead continue to urge Washington to get on board as other member nations look to salvage the deal, said Koichi Hagiuda, deputy chief cabinet secretary, during a daily news briefing.
Hagiuda’s comments came a day after U. S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end U. S. participation in the 12-country pact.
“Without the U. S., the TPP pact is meaningless as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly said,” Hagiuda told a regular news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office. “The fundamental balance of interests is lost without the U. S.”
Hagiuda said for now Japan was “not thinking about an action with 11 countries” to push for a TPP without the U. S.
But Australia is trying to persuade member countries to reformulate the deal, possibly inviting China to join.
On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a 30-minute teleconference with Abe. Hagiuda said the two discussed “the importance of free trade including the TPP,” but declined to comment on whether they discussed Canberra’s push for a TPP without the U. S.
Turnbull, meanwhile, also spoke overnight with the prime ministers of New Zealand and Singapore about the possibility of proceeding without the U. S.
“Losing the United States from the TPP is a big loss, there is no question about that,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. “But we are not about to walk away … certainly there is potential for China to join the TPP.”
Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said Australia, Canada, Mexico and others explored the concept of a “TPP 12 minus one” — the pact without the U.
