Earlier this month, WikiLeaks, a website which posts confidential government materials, released two secret documents that show the state of the behind-the-door negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. One document describes deep divisions between the United States and other member nations, and great pressure being exerted by the U.S. negotiators to move other nations to their position.
As the negotiations are expected to continue next year, it would be nonsensical for the Japanese government to make any kind of concessions to U.S.’ unreasonable demands, while ignoring the people’s right to know. It is the government’s responsibility to disclose and explain what is going on.
The released document appears to be a report compiled by one of the participating countries in late November, when chief negotiators of the 12 member countries met in Salt Lake City. The report stresses in the beginning that the U.S. is putting increasing pressure on other nations to conclude as many issues as possible towards basic agreement. But the report analyzes that large differences remain in most areas, even leaving aside the more complex issues such as intellectual properties, medicines and investment.
Indeed, the ministerial meeting which was held in Singapore after the release of the documents failed to narrow the gaps on the negotiators’ level, and closed without reaching agreement as was scheduled. Not only the multilateral meetings but bilateral negotiations on such issues as tariffs broke down. The results indicate the fact that the gaps were so large that they could not be narrowed even by political decisions on a ministerial level.
The problem is that such conflicts are not disclosed to the public. The overview of the member nations’ stances and differences between them had been leaked through various sources so far, including WikiLeaks’ latest reports. But the member governments have been declining to disclose detailed information on the negotiations, saying they have signed a confidentiality agreement.
An extremely dangerous aspect of the TPP agreement is that it gives severe damage to the domestic agricultural industry and it could cause drastic change to the nation through deregulation. The government has the duty to carefully explain to its people what are being discussed in the negotiations and what the government is trying to get through. The resolutions adopted by the Diet also call for sufficient disclosure of information and nationwide debate. We have pointed to lack of information even before the government decided to join the talks, and our concerns are becoming a disturbing reality.
We have experienced a similar situation brought about by a lack of information in the past. In the end of 1993, when the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations conducted under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was nearing its end, the Japanese government suddenly decided to open its rice market, despite a number of Diet resolutions and protest rallies by the public opposing market liberalization. Currently, more than 700,000 tons of rice is imported every year, but the government kept the negotiations confidential until the end and neglected the people’s right to know. Reflecting on this experience, the government was supposed to have been making efforts to disclose more information in the following Doha round of negotiations under the World Trade Organization.
National sovereignty is the most important pillar of the constitution. Its foundation is the people’s right to know and freedom of the press. But looking at the debate on establishment of the state secrets law, we cannot help thinking that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration is giving little attention to such fundamentals. The TPP negotiations could largely influence the nation’s future course. We urge the government to disclose and explain information related to the negotiations, so that the people and the Diet entrusted with duties delegated from the people can make appropriate judgments.
(Dec. 19, 2013)