The United States on Friday welcomed Japan's interest in joining negotiations on a regional free trade agreement among nine countries in the Asia Pacific but said Tokyo must be prepared to "meet high standard for liberalising trade" to be allowed to join.
"In close consultations with Congress and our domestic stakeholders, we look forward to engaging with the Japanese in these discussions," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement at the annual meeting of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Honolulu.
"To join the negotiations, Japan must be prepared to meet the TPP's high standards for liberalising trade and to address specific issues of concern to the United States regarding barriers to agriculture, services and manufacturing trade, including non-tariff barriers," Kirk said.
The United States and the eight other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have already held eight rounds of talks and have an informal goal of finishing next year. Obama and other leaders of the TPP countries will meet on Saturday to discuss the status of the talks and also Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's announcement on Friday that Japan wants to join.
Many Japanese farmers, who have benefited from Japan's closeted farm sector, oppose joining the TPP so Noda's decision raises both hopes and fears that he is serious about reform. But at least one major US company, Ford, opposes letting Japan into the negotiations because it believes Tokyo is not prepared in the TPP talks to address its non-tariff barriers that block imports of American cars.
"In this economy, we should be creating American jobs, supporting American manufacturing and growing American exports. Allowing Japan - the world's most protectionist country - to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership would do the opposite," Ford said in a statement.
"Japan already ships more than 200 cars to the US for every one car we send there," Ford said. However, US pork producers said they strongly supported Japan's participation in the talks, which are scheduled for at least five more rounds. Japan is the No 1 market for the US pork industry. The National Foreign Trade Council, which represents big US exporters like Boeing, Caterpillar and Microsoft, said Noda's request to join the talks "potentially marks an historic change in the direction of Japan's economy and that of the Asia-Pacific region.