Trans-Pacific Partnership

“The business of Asia is business. We can’t cede to China the setting of the rules.”

Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso this week offered “no guarantee” the United States will strike a better deal with Tokyo if it chooses to pursue a bilateral trade agreement, stressing that U.S. gains with Japan in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership depended on other countries “balancing out the gains and losses.”

The U.S.-Japan Economic Dialogue may produce work that eventually leads to the negotiation of a bilateral free trade deal between the two countries, Vice President Mike Pence said in Tokyo today alongside Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso following the first meeting of the economic dialogue.

“These agreements should be pursued on a priority basis.”

Industry officials, trade analysts and a key Obama administration digital trade negotiator on Thursday warned that the U.S. must quickly work with trading partners to secure digital trade rules in trade agreements that are at least as ambitious as those agreed to in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister Heraldo Muñoz writes in the New York Times that last month's Viña del Mar meeting “has set us on our way.”

U.S.-Japan Caucus co-chairs Reps. Dave Reichert (D-WA) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) voiced support Monday evening for expanding trade with Japan without taking a stance on what shape a potential agreement would take. Japan is still cool to the idea of a bilateral free trade agreement following the U.S. decision to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership, sources have told Inside U.S. Trade.

The United States is interested in integrating into bilateral trade agreements some standards negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to Chile’s ambassador to the United States.

The former USTR, in Japan, says the deal “will make its way into effect, in one form or another.”