Completion of Domestic Procedures for the TPP Agreement

Embassy of Japan

Press Release

20 January 2017

Notification of Completion of Domestic Procedures for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement

1. On January 20, the Japanese Government notified New Zealand, which is designated as the Depositary of the Agreement, of the completion of Japan’s domestic procedures for the TPP, from H.E. Mr. Toshihisa Takata, Ambassador of Japan to New Zealand, to The Hon. Mr. Murray McCully, Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand.

2. The TPP Agreement is intended to establish new common rules for the 21st century in the Asia-Pacific region and form a huge free and fair economic zone. It also seeks to deepen and broaden economic ties among countries and regions that share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, basic human rights, and the rule of law, and is hence strategically significant in terms of pursuing further regional stability.

3. Japan is the first of the 12 original signatories to the TPP Agreement that notified the Depositary, and this was another opportunity to demonstrate Japan’s resolve to achieve the entry into force of the TPP Agreement.

4. Japan intends to continue to tenaciously encourage other original signatories to promptly complete their domestic procedures toward the entry into force of the TPP Agreement, in light of the significance of the TPP.

(Reference 1) Signatories to the TPP Agreement Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam

(Reference 2)Article 30.5 of the TPP Agreement stipulates that the Agreement shall enter into force upon the following conditions: 1) all original signatories have notified the Depositary of the completion of their applicable legal procedures or 2) within a period of two years of the date of signature or after the expiry of this period if at least six of the original signatories, which together account for at least 85 per cent of thecombined gross domestic product of the original signatories in 2013 have notified the Depositary of the completion of their applicable legal procedures.

(Reference 3) The TPP Agreement is the 16th economic partnership agreement that Japan has concluded following existing agreements with Singapore, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, ASEAN, the Philippines, Switzerland, Viet Nam, India, Peru, Australia, and Mongolia.

* The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.

© Scoop Media