Japan rules out renegotiation on TPP

Japan on Friday ruled out the possibility of renegotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership to facilitate the US rejoining the agreement.

After the decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the original TPP in January 2017, the remaining 11 nations decided to go ahead with the agreement.

They were all set to sign a new version on March 8 at a meeting in Chile, Efe news reported.

On Thursday, while attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Trump said: "I would do TPP if we were able to make a substantially better deal."

Tokyo's reaction came after Washington's interest in joining back the agreement came to light.

Spokesperson Yasutoshi Nishimura said at a press conference that if the US wanted to join, it would not mean a new renegotiation as the TPP was an agreement initially signed by 12 countries which included the US.

Any small change could affect the negotiations severely, he said, after being asked about Trump's statements.

Japan has already explained the importance of the TPP to the US and was doing everything possible to make it come into effect as soon as possible, he added.

Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US, which account for about 40 per cent of global economic activity, signed the original TPP in 2016 after six years of negotiations.

The agreement had to be ratified within a period of two years by at least six member nations whose combined GDP represented 85 per cent of the total. After the US exit - which alone accounts for 60 per cent of the GDP of the 12 signatory states - it became invalid.

--IANS

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