Japan and the TPP: Opportunity Knocks

Posted: December 13th, 2016

By Yorizumi Watanabe

Professor Yorizumi Watanabe is a Professor at Keio University. HIs distinguished career has featured significant engagement in all the major bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations in which Japan has been involved in the past two decades. This included the role of policy advisor to relevant Ministers, and postings to Japan's diplomatic missions in Brussels and Geneva. Prior to joining Keio University in 2005, he was Deputy Director-General of the Economic Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan from 2002-2004 and served as Chief Negotiator for the Japan-Mexico Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Working Party on Russia's Accession to the WTO. He was Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan in 2004. He has been a member of the Task Force on Japan-India Economic Partnership, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2006.

During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly slammed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a “bad deal” that would harm U.S. workers and export jobs to Asia. He has promised to renegotiate the agreement, or more likely, back out altogether. For TPP partners and American allies in the region, this is troubling news. The agreement is already near ratification in many TPP countries and the prospect of an American exit has cast the future of free trade in the Asia Pacific into doubt. The Cipher Brief spoke with former Deputy Director-General of the Economic Affairs Bureau at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Yorizumi Watanabe, to look at what Japan and Asia are expecting from Mr. Trump’s trade policies.

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