As a major economy with considerable influence in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has a key role to play in setting the rules in multiple regional free trade agreements, the head of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation secretariat said.
In a recent interview in Tokyo, APEC Secretariat Executive Director Alan Bollard said he hopes Japan will help achieve high-level trade liberalization in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), now being negotiated by many APEC members. "Japan is the only very large economy that's in (both) TPP and RCEP," Bollard said. "It could play an important role in both of those."
The United States and 10 other countries involved in the TPP negotiations welcomed Japan as a member during their 18th round of talks in late July, while the RCEP members held their first round of talks in August.