Draft TPP text shown with modified membership, effectuation requirements

February 23, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government disclosed on Thursday a final draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact broadly agreed in November last year by Japan and 10 other countries without the United States.

Under the assumption that new countries will join the initiative in the future, requirements for new members and the treaty's effectuation were modified in the final text version.

The text, based on the original TPP agreement by the 12 countries, including the United States, in October 2015, is scheduled to be finalized at a signing ceremony to be held in Chile on March 8.

The draft accord basically maintains over 1,000 provisions of the original treaty. But 22 U.S.-demanded measures on intellectual property protection, easing regulations on government procurement and others in the field of trade and investment rules have been suspended.

Meanwhile, no revisions have been made to tariff-related provisions so the 11 existing TPP members can liberalize auto and agricultural product markets as scheduled.

In the original 12-nation deal, consent from all participating nations was necessary for new membership. But the rule was revised in the draft to decide whether to accept a new member through its negotiations with existing members that have already obtained parliamentary approval of the multilateral treaty.

The draft dropped a requirement that parliamentary approval of countries that account for at least 85 pct of the members' combined gross domestic product is necessary for the TPP to take effect.

Instead, it says the pact will come into effect 60 days after the majority of members finish necessary domestic procedures.

An exemption of the culture sector from market liberalization, which was strongly demanded by Canada, will be mentioned in the 11-nation treaty's appendix to be disclosed at the signing ceremony.

The Japanese government hopes the new TPP will take effect in the first half of 2019. Jiji Press