Groser Hopes For Agreement To Let Japan Join TPP At April APEC...

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Groser Hopes For Agreement To Let Japan Join TPP At April APEC Meeting
Posted: March 27, 2013

New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser yesterday (March 26) said he hoped that the 11 countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks will formally agree to let Japan join the TPP talks by the time TPP ministers meet on the margins of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting on April 20-21 in Surabaya, Indonesia. In an interview with Inside U.S. Trade, Groser said he expected TPP partners to react favorably to Japan's bid to join the talks. "I have no doubt it will be a positive response. It certainly will be from us, from New Zealand," he said. At the same time, he pointed out that TPP partners will want to take time to determine the terms and conditions for entry. Just as Japan took time to come to an internal decision on whether to seek to join TPP, now TPP partners will take time to seek out assurances from Tokyo, he said. "The terms in which [entry] is expressed and the understandings that were seeking from Japan are as important to us as theyre own long process of reflection was to them," he said. Groser made clear that this did not mean New Zealand was seeking to delay Japan's entry into the ongoing talks. He said explicitly that New Zealand "won't be trying to delay Japan's entry" because it wants Japan in the agreement. At the same time, he conceded that he was a bit surprised that Japan is making a push now to join. If TPP members were to formally invite Japan to join the talks at the APEC summit, the Obama administration would then notify Congress that it intended to start new negotiations with Japan 90 days before starting talks. That means that Japan may be able to participate in a possible July round of talks. According to the New Zealand trade minister, the March 15 announcement from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stating that Japan will seek to join the ongoing talks "might have come a little bit sooner than one might have expected." He indicated that the "original game plan" was to conclude the TPP negotiations by October and then possibly consider Japan's accession to a completed deal. However, Abe has made clear that Japan wants to be involved in the talks now in order to influence the rules that are currently being negotiated. Groser was in Washington this week to promote his candidacy for director-general of the World Trade Organization, and he spoke about the WTO to an audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday (March 25). After that speech, he told reporters that Japan cannot expect to completely exclude any sensitive items from any tariff cuts. Complete exclusion from tariff cuts for any items will be "impossible," and Tokyo must realize that "comprehensive tariff elimination" is the goal of TPP members, he said. Japan is particularly sensitive in the agricultural sector, including on dairy products, which is the major New Zealand export interest. He agreed that dealing with dairy sensitivities in Tokyo will be a challenge if Japan were to join. At the same time, he pointed out that New Zealand is already facing challenges in the dairy negotiations due to the fact that Canada and the U.S. are also sensitive in the dairy sector, hinting that Japan does not present a new challenge in that respect. After the Chamber of Commerce speech, Groser reiterated that New Zealand could accept a long phaseout period for Japan's tariffs on sensitive agricultural items. He has made the same point in relation to the U.S. dairy sector. In the interview, Groser said New Zealand is sticking to the idea that Japan's entry into TPP will not negatively impact the goal of trying to get the deal concluded by the end of this year. In fact, he argued that delaying a decision on Japan joining the talks could actually hamper the negotiations, rather than ensure their speedy conclusion. According to Groser, "kicking the can down the road, constantly delaying political decisions which are sensitive, actually makes those decisions more difficult, not easier, because you lose momentum," he said.

1996-2013. Inside Washington Publishers

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Groser Hopes For Agreement To Let Japan Join TPP At April APEC...

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