Japan Ambassador plays down U.S. automakers’ TPP concerns

WASHINGTON – Japan’s ambassador to the United States on Friday urged Washington to endorse Tokyo’s bid to enter a U.S.-led Pacific trade pact, pushing back against the concerns of American automakers, but not dismissing them.

On March 15, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Tokyo’s desire to enter negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership in what could be a strategic boost for the White House’s expanded engagement in Asia. But U.S. carmakers in particular are worried about access to Japan’s market.

Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae told the Brookings Institution think tank that Japan has shifted from localized production of vehicles and that its automakers employ 388,000 people in the U.S.

He said that while there are few auto imports from the U.S., cars are coming in from Europe, Japan’s auto tariffs are almost zero and “generally the market is open.”

However, he did say: “We have to address remaining barriers, if there are any.”

At a congressional hearing last week, a Democrat senator complained that Japan exports 120 automobiles to the U.S. for every American vehicle sold to Japan, and that an undervalued yen is giving it an unfair advantage to Japanese producers.

Sasae stressed the strategic importance of the trade pact for Washington’s strategic rebalance to the region, and said Japan’s participation in TPP would help revive both nations’ economies. Without Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, he said, “there’s no sustainable free trade in the Asia-Pacific.”

Japan’s GDP exceeds the combined total of the 10 other nations negotiating the pact with the U.S., which is aimed at reducing duties on theoretically all goods and services and easing regulatory and other nontariff barriers to trade. Other participants include Australia, Canada, Mexico and Vietnam.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, is not taking part.

Sasae said that Abe, who took power in December vowing to boost growth, had spent a great deal of political capital in seeking TPP entry. The pact is opposed by the heavily subsidized farmers, who are influential in Abe’s own party.

He said Japan is sensitive to the concerns of U.S. industry, and he urged the U.S. to be sensitive to Japanese agriculture, in pursuit of the “higher goal” of building regional free trade.

Senators at last week’s hearing, however, sought assurances from the White House that Japan would not get special treatment.

In a separate move, Japanese sources said Saturday that the government is considering naming Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Toyonari Sasaki as chief domestic coordinator for Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks.

In the newly created post, Sasaki will coordinate activities between government ministries and agencies with different interests.

March 24, 2013

Source: Japan Times