Chairman Kokubu’s Comments on Entry into Force of CPTPP for Malaysia

November 29, 2022

I welcome the news that Malaysia, one of Japan’s key trade and investment partners, recently became the ninth party of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The CPTPP is an economic partnership agreement that both promotes the reduction of tariffs and deregulation of investment and services, and establishes rules in a wide range of areas, such as intellectual property, e-commerce, and competition conditions for state-owned enterprises. As an organization that promotes free trade, the JFTC views the CPTPP as an important framework supplementing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and expects that the entry of Malaysia will further strengthen the rules based free and fair multilateral trading system.

In the aim of forming a free trade and investment zone encompassing the Pacific Rim, I would like the Japanese government to continue to show leadership by urging the countries that have not yet ratified the agreement, namely Brunei and Chile, to complete the necessary internal procedures, encouraging the prompt accession of the United Kingdom, and persistently lobbying for the return of the United States to the CPTPP.