December 12, 2013
After failing to reach a deal by the much-touted 2013 deadline, the 12 members in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact pledged a continued effort to find solutions on thorny issues, with the prospect of Japan-U.S. talks over trade involving farm products and automobiles seen as one of the keys for an early conclusion of the trade system.
A Japanese official said the TPP members could become even less motivated to make concessions after they missed the pledged deadline at a crucial four-day ministerial conference ended Tuesday in Singapore, suggesting negotiations could be a lengthy struggle.
The United States was the most vocal about reaching a TPP agreement by the end of December as it seeks to rebuild its presence in Asia when China, a non-TPP member, is increasing its global influence, while trying to create a certain outcome before the midterm election next year.
Japan was also pushing for concluding the deal during the Singaporean session, but bitter conflicts with Washington were among major sticking points hampering the whole negotiations.
The two sides met at least twice on the fringes of a multilateral plenary meeting to discuss how to deal with Japanese tariffs on farm products as well as auto trade issues, but they came up short of filling the gaps.
“I think resolving the US-Japan market access questions will be critical to the success of TPP,” US trade representative Michael Forman told reporters after the Singapore session.
“We’re hopeful Japan is able to come to the table prepared to achieve” a comprehensive deal, Froman said.
Tokyo, however, apparently thinks it has made its utmost concession and it is now Washington’s turn to bring a compromise plan.
“We cannot give even one millimeter” to the United States, Yasutoshi Nishimura, senior vice minister of Japan’s Cabinet Office, reiterated after the ministerial meeting, while declining to reveal the details of the negotiations. “The United States’ demand has never changed. They need to come to the table with flexibility.”
The two sides are going back to the capitals and again consult stakeholders but it is highly uncertain whether they could make a breakthrough on their sensitive issues as they continue to face strong pressures from the Japanese agricultural sector and the US automobile industry, respectively.
An early conclusion of a “21st century” TPP pact, which would also set new international rules for Internet freedom, protection of labour rights as well as medicine prices, is seen as a highly ambitious goal, considering it took around 18 years before countries at the World Trade Organization reached a partial agreement last week on a simpler accord under the long-stalled Doha Round trade liberalization talks.
Apart from tariffs, there are many other TPP controversial issues left unsolved including intellectual property rights, reform of state-owned firms as well as the environment, and big gaps remain over those issues between the United States and others such as Malaysia and Viet Nam.
The prime minister of Malaysia, which is strongly against the hard-line US stance and in conflict with it especially over reform of state-owned enterprises, does not deny the possibility of walking out of the talks.
“That is the worst situation,” but “if people can’t accept it, we have no choice,” Najib Abdul Razak said on Monday.
While people involved in the talks say it would not be easy to keep momentum going for striking a deal, the trade ministers said in their joint statement they will continue their “intensive work in the coming weeks” and decided to meet again in January, possibly on the fringes of the annual talks of the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, scheduled for January 22 to 25.
Matthew Goodman, chair in political economy at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, said recently that a realistic deadline to seal a pact is next April, when President Barack Obama is slated to visit Asia.
“That is when I now expect an agreement to be announced,” said Goodman, former White House coordinator for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
(By Kayo Mimizuka)