Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he intends to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal despite President-elect Trump's pledge to withdraw the US from the agreement.
“We do not have to be affected by the other countries and blindly follow them. Japan needs to go by its own ideas and creeds. We cannot waver now,” Abe said at the plenary session of Japan's Upper House of parliament.
The TPP deal was approved by Japan’s Lower House of parliament in November. The Upper House’s approval is pending.
Shinzo Abe always advocated prompt ratification of the TTP agreement, which was signed in New Zealand in February.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump said that pulling the US out of TTP is the first thing he intends to do when he takes office in January 20, 2017.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership was created with an aim to strengthen ties between the countries, which cover about 40% of the world’s economy. In case the agreement is ratified, 18,000 individual tariffs will be reduced to zero for US exporters and other member states.
