TPP Puts Japan Within Easier Reach: Exporters

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By Jen St. Denis , Business in Vancouver Oct 20, 2015

BC companies that want to be big in Japan are expecting the trade deal to provide a boost

BC companies that want to be big in Japan are expecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to provide a boost.

“It would be difficult for us to see how Canada could not have signed this because otherwise our competitors would have had an advantage,” said Christina Burridge, executive director at the BC Seafood Alliance. “Japan is the biggest seafood market in the world.”

Reducing tariffs will help North Vancouver-based Arc’teryx compete in Japan, where the company has developed a market for its high-end technical clothing. The company manufactures high-quality garments in its Burnaby factory and produces less expensive clothes in Asia.

When the tariffs start to be lowered, the company will be able to compete either by lowering the price of its products or by investing more in marketing, said Lance Richardson, vice-president of operations for Arc’teryx.

Negotiations on the trade pact wrapped up October 5, but the deal will still need to be ratified by each of the 12 nations involved: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore and Japan.

With the announcement coming just two weeks before the October 19 federal election, the Conservative government has attempted to mitigate potential job losses with $1 billion in transition funding to the automaking sector over 10 years.

That’s in addition to $4.3 billion the government will pay in compensation payments to Canadian dairy, chicken and egg farmers, who will retain their strictly controlled price and production-setting system, but who will see some of their market share opened to foreign competitors.

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