Japan's gov't may postpone TPP ratification due to stalled talks with opposition camp

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition under the stewardship of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may delay the approval of the already signed Trans-Pacific Partnership accord owing to a number of related rifts with opposition parties, local media reported Wednesday.

If it is decided that ratifying the free trade deal is to be delayed, the pact's approval will be put off until an extra ordinary Diet session in autumn, as current deliberations in the Diet will end on June 1 and discussions between both sides have officially stalled.

The Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito party coalition partners are concerned that if the rift is not fixed with the opposition camp and the pact not ratified, that this could adversely affect two by-elections on April 24, one in Kyoto and one in Hokkaido, and this summer's upper house election.

Talks had been strained on the matter since they began last week, with politicians from the main opposition Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party boycotting a lower house panel session last Friday, stating that proceedings were being conducted in an unfair manner.

Specifically, they said the panel's chairman Koya Nishikawa was conducting the session unfairly, with the opposition parties also claiming that the ruling camp had rejected calls to disclose pertinent information pertaining to previous negotiations on the TPP pact.

The government's top spokesperson and Abe's right-hand man, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, to this point, said Wednesday that such information has previously never been made public, due to the need to maintain Japan's relationship of trust with other TPP-member nations.

Nishikawa publishing a book containing information on the TPP talks, has also drawn the ire of the opposition camp, who have questioned the ruling camp about providing privileged details of the negotiations to Nishikawa, with the matter remaining equivocal, as the ruling camp has yet to comment on the matter.

The opposition camp has claimed to have a copy of the, as yet, unreleased book, but the ruling camp has suggested that the manuscript in question could be fake.

The party's leaders are seeking ways to make headway on the stalled discussions and a panel session will be held on Friday this week at which Abe will be in attendance, but if no agreement can be made by the end of this month, it is likely that the ratification and legislation of the pact will be postponed.

Japan, the United States and 10 other countries signed the U.S.-led pact in February to, ostensibly, make a free trade zone in the Pacific region that will cover some 40 percent of the global economy.

The deal is facing headwinds on a number of fronts, however, none more so than some potential presidential candidates in the run-up to elections there in November being against the 12-nation pact. Enditem