10 November 2017

For immediate release

Japan’s brinkmanship, claims TPPA deal - Canadian Minister tweets ‘no agreement’

‘The worst kind of brinkmanship is evident in Japan’s determination to salvage the US-driven Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and its own political capital as leaders prepare to meet in Da Nang, Vietnam today’, said University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey

Statements attributed to Japan’s Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi that trade ministers had ‘reached an agreement in principle for a deal’ after officials failed to do so have been widely reported, included by New Zealand media.

But Canadian trade minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has just tweeted, in English and French to be sure, ‘Despite reports, there is no agreement in principle on TPP.’ https://twitter.com/FP_Champagne

‘Japan appears to be planting the impression of an outcome, albeit a vaguely worded “agreement in principle” that others now have to refute. In the process, they will appear to being obstructing the will of the other parties’, Kelsey said.

‘The Canadians appear to have the resolve not to play Japan’s game’.

Professor Kelsey urged New Zealand’s trade minister and Prime Minister to do the same.

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