Japan’s next government, which is likely to be led by Shinzo Abe as prime minister, has suggested it may join a US-backed Pacific-wide free-trade deal, a report said yesterday.
Tokyo has previously shown interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but remained non-committal in the face of fierce opposition from its cosseted farming industry.
Participation by the world’s third-largest economy would give a shot in the arm to a pact seen as a key plank of US President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia,” and a counterbalance to China’s rising regional clout.
Referring to the possibility of joining the TPP, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito Party, “will pursue the best path that would serve Japan’s national interest,” they said in their final coalition agreement, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
The coalition, which is due to take office officially tomorrow, also agreed on promoting other free-trade frameworks, it said.
The comment contains a more positive note on participation in the TPP compared with the LDP and New Komeito Party’s election pledges before the Dec. 16 poll that brought Abe a landslide victory.
In an apparent move to garner farmers’ votes, the LDP had said during the election campaign it “opposes participation as long as joining the pact requires preconditions of abolishing tariffs without exception.”
The New Komeito Party had also taken a cautious stance on early participation in the trade pact.
The day after Abe’s poll victory, Japan’s major business lobby, Keidanren, urged Abe to join the trade talks “at an early date.”
“We urge the new government to participate in the negotiations of the TPP at an early date, as we have no time to waste on the issue,” Keidanren chairman Hiromasa Yonekura said in a statement.
Business lobbies say Japan’s export-oriented economy would be a major beneficiary of the promotion of a global multilateral free-trade system.
Separately, the yen dipped against the US dollar and the euro in Asian trade yesterday as Abe stepped up pressure on the Bank of Japan to set a 2 percent inflation target.
He told Fuji Television the bank’s policy board must back his proposed 2 percent inflation goal next month and warned failure to do so would mean he would amend the law that sets out its duties and guarantees its independence.
The market has welcomed his rhetoric, sending the yen lower and boosting the Nikkei index.
In Asian trade the euro bought ￥111.19, compared with ￥110.05 late on Friday in New York, while it was also at US$1.3178 from US$1.3181.
The US dollar fetched ￥84.35 up from ￥84.25.
“The yen is finding sellers, even in thin holiday trade,” said Jason Hughes, head of premium client management for IG Markets Singapore.
“The changes in political circles in Japan mean we will see a more aggressive stance in weakening [the yen],” he said.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
Taiwan-based GlobalWafers Co., the world’s third largest silicon wafer supplier, on Wednesday opened a 12-inch silicon wafer plant in Novara, northern Italy - the country’s most advanced silicon wafer facility to date. The new plant, coded “Fab300,” was launched by GlobalWafers’ Italian subsidiary MEMC Electronics Materials S.p.A at a ceremony attended by Taiwan’s representative to Italy Vincent Tsai (蔡允中), MEMC President Marco Sciamanna and Novara Mayor Alessandro Canelli. GlobalWafers Chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said the investment marked a milestone in the company’s expansion in Europe, adding that the Novara plant will be powered entirely by renewable energy - a reflection of its
RSS