WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate lawmakers are calling on Japan to eliminate tariff and non-tariff trade barriers for U.S. agricultural products as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks.The TPP is a regional 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. Lead negotiators met this week in Singapore – ahead of the TPP ministers meetings Feb. 22-25 – to discuss outstanding issues, including Japan’s recalcitrance on market access.
In a letter sent today to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, 15 senators, led by Michael Bennett, D-Colo., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked for assurances that the TPP negotiations will not be concluded until Japan agrees to eliminate tariff and non-tariff trade barriers for agricultural products. In addition to Bennett and Grassley, signing the letter were Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Richard Burr, R-N.C., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Kay Hagan, D-N.C., Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., Mike Johanns, R-Neb., Mark Kirk, R-Ill., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., John Thune, R-S.D., Mark Udall, D-Colo., and John Boozman, R-Ark.
Japan is demanding special treatment for its agricultural sector, including exclusion from the agreement of certain “sensitive” products. The United States never has agreed to allow a trading partner to exempt as many tariff lines as Japan is requesting. It wants exemptions for 586 tariff lines, or 11 percent of its tariff schedule. (In the 17 free trade agreements the United States has concluded this century, a total of 233 tariff lines have been exempted from having their tariffs go to zero.) A recent analysis of Japan’s market access offer can be viewed here.
The Asian nation is an important market for U.S. agriculture – the fourth largest – which shipped $12.1 billion of food and agricultural products to the island nation in 2013.