Government officials told members of the Democratic Party (DP) at DP’s meeting held on March 29 that all of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial talks between Japan and the United States had proceeded without recording those talks in any form of minutes.
According to the Japanese Government’s TPP Headquarters at the Cabinet Secretariat Office, the two governments could have found it more difficult for them to exchange free-handed views to find out a solution for concluding the trade talks, if negotiators’ remarks were recorded in the minutes and they tried to obtain partner’s pledge in those minutes of previous meetings.
The governmental officials also told the DP lawmakers that the former TPP minister Akira Amari and US Trade Representative Michael Froman had 24 meetings in total to complete the TPP negotiations, but the proceedings of any meetings were not recorded. The ministers exchanged views on a non-committal basis at these meetings.
Those officials reportedly added all the necessary information was orally shared among key officials of the TPP Headquarters.
If the members of DP’s members were provided with true stories, it might be difficult for the lawmakers to uncover the detailed process of bilateral talks between Japan and the United States on the TPP deal without any minutes on those negotiations including a crucial talk on trade liberalization of farm products which will decide the fate of local farmers producing commodities concerned.
Meanwhile, the governmental officials admitted that they formulated documents as memorandums on arguments before and after the respective talks. The officials, however, “cannot publicize the documents,” owing to an agreement on confidentiality made between the two governments,
DP’s policymakers are suspicious of these stories. “Governmental officials did not record the negotiations on purpose, because they were afraid that results of the trade talks would be verified later with their minutes,” one of the DP’s members told a reporter of the Japan Agricultural News.