U.S. Successfully Completes Negotiations With Japan on Entering TPP, USTR Says
The U.S. “successfully” completed bilateral consultations with Japan on its entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and supports Japan’s entry in the agreement pending a consensus vote among current TPP members, said Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis April 12. The two countries concluded “a robust package of actions and agreements with Japan in the automotive and insurance sectors, as well as other non-tariff measures,” Marantis said in a statement. U.S. lawmakers initially expressed concern about Japan joining the TPP, many citing the country’s restrictive auto trade (see 13031523). That hasn't changed with this announcement.
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“For decades Japan has had and been using to their economic advantage the most closed auto market in the world," said House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., in a statement (here). "As a result, the onus should be on Japan to open their market before receiving any benefit through a trade agreement with the United States. The package announced by the Administration after consultation with Japan does not provide an adequate basis for Japan’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership." Levin also sent a letter to President Obama April 10, detailing the "consequences of Japan's closed market" (here). In a statement, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. also said he would not support Japan's entry into TPP, "unless we obtain airtight assurances that Japan’s participation in the TPP negotiations will neither diminish the comprehensive and ambitious nature of these negotiations nor delay the goal of concluding the negotiations this year” (here).