Japan should consider concluding a bilateral economic partnership agreement with Canada, which could then be used as a card against the United States in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, Quebec's minister of international relations and foreign trade said this week during a trip to the Kansai region.
Canada and Japan began negotiations on forming a comprehensive and high-level EPA in November 2012, before Japan joined the TPP talks last year. Canada entered the TPP talks in October 2012.
In an interview with The Japan Times, Quebec minister Jean-Francois Lisee said the bilateral negotiations are more advanced than the TPP talks and would be reasonably easy to settle, especially now that Canada and the European Union signed a free trade accord last year.