AJISS-Commentary No. 243: “The Rise of Protectionism and Japan’s Trade Policy” by Shujiro Urata
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies (AJISS) has just published the AJISS-Commentary No. 243, "The Rise of Protectionism and Japan' s Trade Policy", by Shujiro Urata, Professor of International Economics at Graduate School Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University.
Protectionism is on the rise worldwide. [Trump's protectionist policy is one such example.] Unless rising protectionism is stopped and reversed, the world economy will shrink, resulting in military conflict or other disastrous consequences.
- The TPP will not now be realized because of Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the TPP. Japan needs to contribute to the conclusion of other mega-FTAs such as the TPP-US, the RCEP and the Japan-EU FTA by cooperating with like-minded countries. - If the US approaches Japan for a bilateral FTA, Japan should accept this on several conditions, one being that a bilateral FTA would be a steppingstone to a mega-FTA such as the TPP.