The House of Representatives passed a proposal to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement and approved TPP related bills at its plenary session held on November 10.
Those TPP bills cleared the House with support from the ruling parties and the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai.
Lawmakers of the Democratic Party and other two opposition parties walked out of the assembly hall to protest against rapid ratification of the TPP pact.
The ruling bloc plans to extend the current extraordinary Diet session, which is set to end on November 30, so as to ensure that the House of Councilors will also ratify the TPP pact by the end of the current session.
The bills have been sent to the House of Councilors. The TPP free trade agreement is highly likely to be ratified at the current Diet session.
Shinzo Abe’s administration and the ruling bloc rushed to complete domestic procedures for the ratification, despite diminishing prospects for the ratification of the TPP free trade agreement by the U.S. Congress.
Most of concerns and questions about the TPP pact, which have been raised by the nation, have not yet been eliminated.
Lawmakers of the opposition camp of the Democratic Party (DP) and the Japanese Communist party walked out of the vote after expressing their opposition to the TPP bills, saying “The Japanese ruling bloc is urging the Diet to ratify the TPP free trade agreement despite the fact that Donald Trump U.S. President-elect has been repeatedly opposing the TPP agreement. They will surely become the laughing stock of the world.”
“We cannot accept a result of the voting. I do not believe policymakers have completed a thorough deliberation on the TPP issues at the House of Representatives,” Kazunori Yamai, chairman of the DP Diet Affairs Committee spoke to a group of reporters.