WASHINGTON, D.C. – If the United States accepts the offer Japan has made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks, it would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals, according to a coalition of agricultural organizations.
The TPP is a regional trade negotiation that includes the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which account for nearly 40 percent of global GDP.
In its negotiations with the United States, Japan wants to exempt from tariff elimination 586 tariff lines, or 11 percent of its tariff schedule. In the 17 other FTAs the United States has concluded this century, only 233 tariff lines were exempted from tariff elimination.
“For the TPP to be a high-standard, 21st century agreement, Japan’s deal on market access should exceed the deal that South Korea and other U.S. FTA partners made this century with the United States,” said Nick Giordano, vice president and international trade counsel for the National Pork Producers Council, which is part of the agricultural coalition.