Malcolm Turnbull has suffered yet another embarrassment after his idea to pursue a new trade agreement with the 10 other signatories to the now-dead Trans-Pacific Partnership was rejected by the Japanese Government.
The Japan Times has reported that Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s Deputy Cabinet Secretary told a media conference that Japan was “not thinking about an action with 11 countries” because following the withdrawal of the United States “… the TPP pact is meaningless as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly said.” (Koichi Hagiuda, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Japan Times 24 January 2017).
Malcolm Turnbull’s economic credibility is now in tatters. He has been publically humiliated by the United States and now Japan – and he only has himself to blame.
Last week he announced his big economic plan was to introduce legislation to ratify an agreement that now cannot legally come into force because of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the TPP.
Yesterday, despite Donald Trump signing an Executive Order withdrawing the United States from the TPP, Malcolm Turnbull was still clinging to the delusional idea that the US President would change his mind.
And now the Japanese Government has rejected his latest idea: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/24/national/politics-diplomacy/tokyo-turns-australian-proposal-tpp-without-u-s-vows-keep-pushing-trump/#.WIfdcE27oSu
WEDNESDAY. 25 JANUARY 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: KORENA FLANAGAN 02 9790 2466
