Japan urges TPP partners to sign pact before elections

Nations working to salvage a mammoth Pacific-rim trade pact that the US abandoned need to move forward before electoral politics get in the way, according to Japan’s chief negotiator.

“Next year various countries have elections, there’ll be movements in governments,” Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Friday in an interview in Tokyo. “Considering this, we ought to get it signed quickly before then.”

While Motegi didn’t cite any specific member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership or provide a time frame, Malaysia must hold an election by mid-2018 and Mexico is set to go to the polls in July next year.

Yet not all countries