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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#777777'>CQ NEWS – POLICY<br>March 14, 2013 – 5:18 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:108%'><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:23.5pt;line-height:108%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'>Democrats Call for Excluding Japan From Asia Free-Trade Talks<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#888888'>By Jonathan Broder, CQ Roll Call<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>Dozens of Democrats in the House and Senate on Thursday lacerated Japan over long-standing barriers that have kept U.S. cars out of the Japanese market, warning that a slowly recovering American auto industry would suffer even more economic pain if Tokyo is allowed to join an Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>In a letter to President <span class=person-ref><a href="http://www.cq.com/person/7612" id=wicket-generated-id-87>Barack Obama</a></span>, 35 Democratic House members, many of them members of the Ways and Means Committee, and eight senators, including Michigan’s <span class=person-ref><a href="http://www.cq.com/person/256" id=wicket-generated-id-88>Carl Levin</a></span> and <span class=person-ref><a href="http://www.cq.com/person/247" id=wicket-generated-id-89>Debbie Stabenow</a></span>, noted that Japan’s web of regulations that effectively blocks U.S. automakers from selling their cars and trucks in Japan is too deeply rooted to be resolved by the trade agreement, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP), an initiative launched by Obama in 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>“These long-standing, economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiation at this stage, three years into the U.S. involvement in the TPP negotiations and close to the administration’s target date of concluding talks by the end of this year,” the letter said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>The negotiations to liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region include the United States, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Singapore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>During his visit to Washington last month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signaled his interest in joining the negotiations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:18.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>Unfair Advantage Claimed<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>If Japan joins the free trade pact before what the lawmakers called “the necessary transformation of the Japanese market,” it would win the elimination of a 2.5 percent tariff on Japanese cars and a 25 percent tariff on Japanese trucks sold in the United States, further undercutting American car companies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>This “would be a major benefit to Japan without any gain for a vital American industry, leading to more Japanese imports, less American production, and fewer American jobs,” the lawmakers wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>They also warned that Japan’s participation in the TPP could have an adverse impact on the U.S. trade deficit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>The United States already has its second largest trade imbalance with Japan after China, clocking in at $76.3 billion for 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, automotive products accounted for more than two-thirds of the deficit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>“These deficits are long-standing and growing,” the letter said, noting that 20 years ago, the U.S. automotive trade deficit with Japan was $31 billion. In 2012, it was $53.5 billion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang=EN style='font-size:15.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#555666'>“The United States and Japan are, and will remain, close and important allies,” the lawmakers said. But “a flawed, one-way trade agreement that benefits Japan at the expense of the United States businesses and workers will not help strengthen this vital relationship.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Mark W. Harrison<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Director, Peace with Justice Program<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>United Methodist General Board of Church and Society<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>