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TOKYO: Japan’s government, saying its honor was on the line, vowed
Tuesday to ratify a free trade accord with Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) by extending a parliament session hampered by
feuding with the opposition.
“Japan would be laughed at by the
international community” if the world’s second-largest economy
fails to ratify the accord, chief government spokesman Nobutaka
Machimura told a news conference.
He said the government planned to extend the
current parliament session, which is due to end on Sunday, so that
the ruling coalition can win approval for key legislation including
the free trade accord.
Japan’s lower house approved the accord on May
22, but parliament debate on the accord and other key bills has been
deadlocked in the upper house, where the opposition camp enjoys a
majority.
The opposition has ramped up pressure on
unpopular Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and is expected on Wednesday
to introduce a censure motion against him over a controversial
medical plan.
Under the constitution, international treaties
signed by the government can be automatically ratified 30 days after
the more powerful lower house gives its approval.
The deal was signed in April by Malaysia, the
last of the 10 members of the Asean to sign off on it.
Under the pact, about 90 percent of trade
between Asia’s largest economy and the Asean bloc will be
tariff-free within 10 years.
It will be the first multinational free trade
agreement for Japan, which also has been seeking to conclude a
flurry of bilateral pacts amid a breakdown in global trade
negotiations.
Tokyo has reached bilateral deals with eight
nations, six of which are in the Asean group that includes Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The others
are Chile and Mexico.
-- AFP
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