Japan has been lobbying hard for agreement on the sidelines of this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. The pact aims to eliminate tariffs on industrial and farm products across a bloc whose trade totalled $356 billion last year. For Malaysia, the main benefit of joining the TPP was the removal of tariffs on exports to the United States. Vietnam itself had been seen as potentially the biggest beneficiary of the TPP when it included the United States. TPP trade ministers from the 11 remaining members agreed to move ahead without the United States at a meeting in Vietnam in May, but asked their negotiators to look at what might need changing ahead of the meeting in Danang.

Source: New Strait Times November 08, 2017 03:33 UTC