26 Feb 2018 Quick Start: Australia-Japan Relations and Business
Australia Japan relations brought in the New Year with a lightning visit to Tokyo by Prime Minister Turnbull. Although the reported visit content focussed on strengthening regional security, trade and the establishment of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) were also featured, notwithstanding the USA’s withdrawal from the TPP. As the Prime Minister said:
The TPP is a down-payment on the sustainability of free and open markets, at a time they are under pressure from the combined forces of populism, protectionism and geo-economics. The TPP promises greater transparency and stronger rule of law in a world which is too often short of both. The TPP brings our trading system into the digital world, it levels the playing field for non state-owned companies, it defends and extends the freedom to explore, share and capitalise on new ideas and it creates rules of the road to match the new economic journey upon which we are embarking.
[See an analysis of these issues: Shifting Trade Winds: Asia Society Report]