Shingo Oka – Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam
Participants of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks ended discussions in two working group sessions on Saturday, August 31, concluding the 19th round of negotiations held in Brunei. Japan has also held one-on-one sessions with nine member countries on market access including elimination of tariffs, and presented to six of them its first offers of items subject to lowering or abolishment of tariffs. But the countries reportedly asked for higher trade liberalization rates, indicating that Japan will be under increasing pressure to make difficult decisions concerning tariff cuts as the members work to reach broad agreement before the TPP leaders’ meeting scheduled in October.
In a briefing to stakeholders held on Friday, August 30, Japan’s chief negotiator Koji Tsuruoka told Liberal Democratic Party members and officials of industrial associations that he was told by countries that have already conducted first-round talks with Japan that Japan’s offers still have room for improvement. At a press conference held the same day, Tsuruoka said that generally speaking, Japan will have to raise its trade liberalization rate – the percentage of items subject to tariff cuts within a certain time period – depending on responses from other countries. He refrained from specifying the countries with which Japan exchanged lists of proposals on tariff cuts.
In its first set of offers, Japan reportedly proposed to cut tariffs on around 80 percent of traded items. Under the existing free-trade agreements Japan has concluded, the percentage of items on which Tokyo agreed to eliminate tariffs ranges from 84.4 percent to 88.4 percent of the total. Out of the total of 9,018 items, Japan has never eliminated tariffs on around 940 items. If Japan tries to respond to other countries’ demand to further open its markets, negotiations could go as far as discussing tariffs on the five key agricultural products which the agricultural committees of the upper and lower houses of the Diet state in their resolutions as exceptions.
The TPP participants are aiming at reaching broad agreement before the leaders’ meeting which will be held in October in line with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting. The United States and Australia are also expected to propose their list of tariff cut offers in September, and bilateral discussions between countries concerning tariffs are likely to intensify, as a four-day meeting of chief TPP negotiators is expected to be held in Washington starting on Wednesday, September 18, under the goal of concluding the talks by the year end.
As the negotiations on tariff elimination progress, the government and the ruling LDP will have to tackle seriously on coordinating conflicting interests at home. But the government has not presented its concrete negotiation policies, nor responded to calls for disclosure of information concerning TPP negotiations. Having participated in a full round of TPP talks for the first time, the Japanese government is now tasked with the challenges of establishing strategies for future negotiations, as discussions on how to protect national interests, namely the five key agricultural products, are likely to become a major issue of concern domestically.
(Sept. 1, 2013)