[CTC] TPP Forum in San Francisco

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-03-14/japan-joining-trade-talks-fuels-criticism-over-barriers


Bloomberg News
Japan Joining Trade Talks Fuels Criticism Over Barriers
By Mark Drajem on March 14, 2013

Japan’s bid to join trade negotiations aimed at creating the Trans- 
Pacific Partnership drew criticism from U.S. lawmakers and a citizens’  
group even before it was announced.

Representative Sander Levin of Michigan joined by 42 Democrats said in  
a letter to President Barack Obama today that the automobile import  
market in Japan is unfairly closed to U.S.-made vehicles, and letting  
the nation join the regional trade deal would hurt rather than help  
address that imbalance.

“It’s hard to see how those TPP negotiations could be the vehicle to  
address all the decades of exclusion by Japan,” Levin, the top  
Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee that oversees trade  
policy, said in an interview. “It’s hard to see how TPP negotiations  
could lead to a two-way street.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will announce that Japan will seek  
to join the negotiations, according to a government official who asked  
not to be named ahead of the statement.

The Trans-Pacific agreement among 11 nations, including Brunei and  
Peru, is being drafted as a model for future pacts as President Barack  
Obama’s administration seeks to double U.S. exports by the end of  
2014. Negotiators held the 16th round of talks in Singapore this week  
and are on track for wrapping up a deal by the end of the year,  
according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

Biggest Deal
An agreement would be the biggest free-trade deal for the U.S., and  
the first new accord under Obama. The region that represents more than  
half of global output and more than 40 percent of world trade,  
according to the U.S. trade office.

The nations in the negotiations are Australia, Brunei Darussalam,  
Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, U.S.  
and Vietnam. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, has hinted for  
years that it would join the talks.

The U.S. trade-in-goods deficit with Japan in 2012 widened 21 percent  
to $76.3 billion from the previous year, according to the U.S. Census  
Bureau. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office last year listed  
Japan’s restrictions on beef and rice imports in the agency’s annual  
report on foreign-trade barriers.

In addition to the lawmakers, the activist Citizens Trade Campaign,  
which is affiliated with public health groups and labor unions, said  
the pact may helps destroy U.S. jobs and reduce wages.

‘Past Problems’
Japan joining the TPP “only threatens to accelerate past problems,  
unless a new model for international trade policy is embraced,” Arthur  
Stamoulis, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

Lobbyists for U.S. automakers such as Ford Motor Co. (F) and General  
Motors Co. (GM) have said Japan shouldn’t be allowed to join the  
partnership until it further opens the auto market to foreign  
competition. The U.S. has signed a series of deals with Japan in the  
past seeking to ease those trade barriers.

Levin, whose committee reviews trade deals, said a “flawed, one-way  
trade agreement” will not be sufficient to resolve the longstanding  
practices, and eliminating the 2.5 percent tariff on automobile  
imports and 25 percent tariff on truck imports might lead to further  
Japanese exports to the U.S.

U.S. exports “can’t get in,” Levin said. “Past efforts to open up and  
transform their market have failed miserably.”


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