Japan and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

• Main Author: Eugene Borisovich Kovrigin
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Economic Research Institute of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2016-06-01
• Series: Prostranstvennaâ Èkonomika
• Subjects: Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); ratification; international trade; China; USA; Japan
• Online Access: http://spatial-economics.com/eng/images/spatial-econimics/2_2016/SE.2016.2.037-054.Kovrigin.pdf
• ISSN: 1815-9834; 2587-5957

The article discusses the new format of international trade - Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - and the consequences of its formation for various sectors of the Japanese economy. The paper aims at summarizing the results of a long-term (2009-2016) monitoring of Japanese and foreign mass-media coverage of the emerging Partnership and Japan’s role in this process. The author reveals a split within Japanese society and elites with regard to participation in this US-sponsored organization. Some important examples illustrate ideology of both TPP’s proponents and adversaries in Japan. The study also discusses negotiations’ chronology, differences in approach among all the twelve participating nations as well prospects for ratification of the agreement by national legislatures. For example, Japan’s opposition parties are ready to unite to prevent the ratification of the TTP in the Parliament; and the current US President, most likely, will not have time to ratify the Partnership in the US Congress before the end of his presidential term. The article also points out possible alternatives to the TPP forwarded by China which has not been invited to join the Partnership. These initiatives include ‘One belt, One Road’ (OBOR or New Silk Road) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)