Canada, Japan Move Closer to CPTPP Ratification

Legislation to ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is making its way through both the Canadian and Japanese legislatures, officials say, bringing the deal closer to entering into force.  Earlier this month, Canadian international trade minister François-Philippe Champagne pledged that his government would work “expeditiously” to advance the ratification process, though the final passage of the legislation may not take place before autumn, according to comments reported in Canadian newspaper iPolitics.  The 11 signatories of the CPTPP include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. They signed the deal in March during a ceremony in Chile.  he CPTPP incorporates the original TPP agreement, pledging to slash tariffs on 95 percent of trade in goods, along with covering a host of trade topics, ranging from technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures to competition policy and intellectual property rights. The renewed deal suspends a number of the TPP’s original provisions, especially from the chapter on intellectual property rights. A few other provisions were suspended in chapters such as environment, investment, and public procurement.