Tokyo, June 2, 2021: The countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) began negotiations on the possible inclusion of the United Kingdom into the agreement, Japan’s Minister of Economic Revitalization, Nishimura Yasutoshi said Wednesday.
“If the UK, which is a global strategic partner, an important foreign trade and investment partner, joins the 11 TPP countries, we can build a free, fair economic order. It also makes deep strategic sense for strengthening Japanese-British economic relations,” the official told reporters after a ministerial meeting as quoted by NHK.
A working group will be set up to lead the negotiations and procedures on the inclusion of the UK into the TPP. The start of negotiations on the inclusion of a new member of the agreement will be the first since the establishment of the partnership.
The TPP is a trade agreement signed in February 2016 by 12 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The TPP aims to reduce tariff barriers as well as regulate internal rules in participating countries in areas such as labour law, environment, intellectual property and a number of others.
The Donald Trump administration pulled the US from the agreement, leaving 11 countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico and Peru.
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