Thailand targeted as next member, with talks to start in August
TOKYO — Japan will make a fresh attempt to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact to include more Asian economies, such as Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines, after the new coronavirus exposed the risks of supply chains overly dependent on China.
First up will be Thailand, a key production hub for many Japanese automakers. The country is expected to announce as early as April its intent to join the TPP.
Negotiations will officially begin in August, when the 11 existing members — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — hold a ministerial meeting in Mexico.
Japan has already begun laying the groundwork by sending a high-ranking negotiator to Thailand. Japan will chair the TPP in 2021, when talks are expected to kick into high gear.
The move comes amid a realization that diversifying production is increasingly important.
As factories in China were forced to shut down as the outbreak spread beyond its initial epicenter of Wuhan, global production was disrupted for many multinationals. A shortage of Chinese auto parts forced Nissan Motor to suspend operations at an assembly plant in Japan last month, while Komatsu scrambled to shift production of metal parts for its construction equipment from China to Japan and Vietnam.
The disease has spread widely across the Asia-Pacific region since early this month, infecting thousands across South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia and cooling economic activity…
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