Amidst a Global Trade War: China, Japan and the United States and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for a Transpacific Partnership

Abstract

Due to the US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the remaining 11 partners entered into a new trade agreement, renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in January 2018. In this text we examine the reasons why the “orphans” of the TPP decided to save the agreement under a different version by first examining the two dominant explanatory models, realism and functionalism, and then proposing a complementary one that emphasizes the need for a strong legal and normative framework to promote the integration of mid-powers into trans-Pacific and even global value chains. This text also illustrates the unique leadership and activism of Japan in the negotiation process.