Takanori Okabe – Bali, Indonesia
12 member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks will gear up negotiations to reach basic accord at the summit meeting scheduled in Bali on Tuesday, October 8, and pave the way for concluding the talks by the yearend.
Chief negotiators are expected to hold meetings starting Tuesday, October 1, and ministers’ meeting is opted to start on Thursday, October 3, to discuss sensitive subjects that need political decisions.
But Japanese government sources say the TPP members will only be able to reach agreement on less controversial fields. As for sensitive fields, such as market access including reduction and elimination of tariffs, the negotiators are highly likely to put off reaching conclusion until the end of this year, only to agree on “stepping up negotiations,” according to the sources.
In the series of negotiations to be held in Bali, the Japanese government may face the risk of being pressured to set a minimum standard for trade liberalization, which would make it more difficult for Japan to protect its key agricultural products.
Japan’s chief negotiator Koji Tsuruoka, who arrived in Bali on Monday, September 30, told reporters before leaving Japan that the Japanese negotiation team will prepare for the talks in Bali so that they can cooperate with other countries constructively to strike a deal.
Asked whether the TPP members will reach broad accord, Tsuruoka went as far as saying that the members are discussing seriously to produce results in Bali which will lead to large progress.
The blueprint shared by the TPP members is to announce a broad agreement in the summit meeting in Bali to pave the way for the final goal of concluding the talks by the yearend. But the members have been at odds concerning fields including elimination of tariffs and rules on intellectual properties. The focus of the Bali meetings will be on how the negotiators can narrow the gaps between them, based on discussions at chief negotiators’ meetings and working group sessions held in Washington last month.
In the most controversial area of market access, the TPP ministers are expected to discuss how to proceed with the negotiations, rather than the actual trade liberalization rate that indicates the percentage of imported items on which each member agrees to eliminate tariffs.
Japan will face a difficult situation if the member countries agree on adopting a negotiation method of setting a minimum standard for trade liberalization or gradually increasing the trade liberalization rate.
As Japan formally joined the TPP framework in July, it will be the first time for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to attend the TPP summit meeting. Abe and Akira Amari, Japan’s minister in charge of the TPP talks who will attend the ministerial meeting, will also hold bilateral talks separately with their counterparts.
The series of TPP meetings in Bali will be held in line with the meetings of leaders and ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation framework. Trade liberalization will be the main topic of discussion also in the APEC meetings.
(Oct. 1, 2013)