Politics
15:24, 13-Jul-2017
Can Japan be the hero and save the TPP?
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By CGTN's Dialogue
In January, Donald Trump made the decision to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In the absence of US leadership, Japan took the lead in unifying the trade block, but how has it fared so far?
The TPP is "a test for Japan,” Xu Qingduo, current affairs commentator from China Radio International, told CGTN’s Dialogue.
"This is a very challenging job for Japan to play this leadership role”, especially given that “the US stands for 60 percent of the TPP's 12 nations' combined GDP,” he noted.
This week, officials from the remaining 11 nations are gathered in Hakone, Japan in an effort to save the economic pact that encircles the Pacific. “Obviously the remaining 11 countries did not want to give it up because it took five years for those countries to reach this agreement,” noted Xu.
Author and columnist Einar Tangen was however pessimistic: without the US, the TPP “is a wheel without a hub,” he argued. A US return to the pact was also highly unlikely given Trump antagonism to former President Barack Obama and his policies.
Left to handle this challenge, “Japan has not come up with a viable alternative,” said Tangen, arguing that so far, its “best move” has been increased trade ties with the EU and efforts to approach China on its Belt and Road project.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had high hopes for his country's role in the TPP but he has his work cut out for him, Yoichi Shimatsu, former editor of Japan Times, argued.
“I think he saw a glimmer of a possibility of something like a Yen block, of being in a position something like Germany is inside the European Union. Unfortunately there’s a lot of disparate economies in this Pacific bloc.”
“It’s a very delicate political operation right now for Abe to actually make this from something like a grand idea into a working reality,” Shimatsu said.
Dialogue with Yang Rui is a 30-minute current affairs talk show on CGTN. It airs daily at 7.30 p.m. BJT (1130GMT), with rebroadcasts at 3.30 a.m. (1930GMT) and 11.30 a.m. (0330GMT).