With Obama in Japan, business groups push for TPP deal
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2014 – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
urged Japan and the U.S. to take advantage of President Barack Obama's visit to
Tokyo to strike a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade
negotiations.
“We urge our governments in very clear and direct terms to
get together and get our issues resolved,” said Jim Fatheree, the
president of the U.S-Japan Business Council
and senior director for Asia at the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, on a call with reporters. He said it was significant that
Japanese business interests themselves were now pushing for a completed TPP.
Adam
Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics,
called the president's visit a "unique opportunity for Japan to advance
its own interests."
President Obama’s trip to Japan concludes today.
Yesterday’s teleconference comes a week after the U.S.
Chamber and its Japanese counterparts released a joint statement urging Tokyo
and Washington to grant "full market access" to each countries'
products, including agricultural goods. The statement was signed by Chamber, the
U.S.-Japan Business Council, its counterpart, the Japan-U.S. Business Council, and Keidanren, Japan’s
Chamber of Commerce equivalent.
Fatheree also said technical agriculture negotiators,
including representatives from USDA, are currently “working around the clock”
to finish the 12-nation trade deal, of which Japan and the U.S. are the two
largest economies.
Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, Deputy
Undersecretary of Agriculture Darci Vetter and Assistant U.S. Trade
Representative for Agricultural Affairs Sharon Bomer Lauritsen are also in
Japan during Obama’s visit.
During remarks to Japanese media Wednesday, United States
Trade Representative Michael Froman also pushed Japan use TPP to open its
markets.
“This is a moment for Japan to take an elevated view, and to
choose a bold path of economic renewal, revitalization, and regional
leadership,” Froman said.
Though observers say there's little chance Obama's meeting
with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will result in a major breakthrough,
they say the leaders could use the summit to send a strong signal to
negotiators.
“When you have a political discussion, and I think both
leaders are interested in moving forward, I think things flow from that,”
Fatheree told reporters.
The U.S. agriculture industry currently faces significant
barriers to trade in Japan, including so-called “megatariffs,” extremely high
duties that effectively bar imports beyond a set minimum access amount. Foreign
rice,
for example, faces a 778 percent tariff once it exceeds its 770,00-ton import
quota. As a result, the U.S. rice industry exported only 350,000 tons of rice
to Japan during the 2013 marketing year – a tiny percentage of the total 4.5
million tons exported.
#30
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