The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on March 8 sent the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and a related bill to the Japanese Diet and expects to get approval before the Diet wraps up its session at the end of June, although it is hoping for action as early as late April, according to the country’s deputy chief negotiator for TPP.
[Daily News| March 10, 2016 |Inside US Trade]
Speaking at a March 9 event in Washington organized by the Asia Society, Hiroshi Oe said the Japanese government would like the Diet to pass the bills as soon as possible. It would be preferable to have passage prior to the G-7 summit slated for May 26-27 in Japan and certainly ahead of the July upper-house elections, he said.
But Wendy Cutler, the former acting deputy USTR who is now vice president at the Asia Society, said at the event that this is a “very ambitious timetable” for Diet approval.
Oe said the Japanese government expects a “heated discussion” over the TPP and the related bill in the Diet, but is confident they will pass in the end. The first step toward ratification will involve consideration by a “special committee” in the Diet, according to Oe.
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