TPP関係海外情報

最終更新：13年4月25日

2013年

NewUS weighs trade pact with Japan,FT.com,13.4.25
Key US lawmakers and business executives pressed the Obama administration to maintain a tough line in trans-pacific trade talks that have gathered momentum following Japan’s bid this month to enter the pact.
　[著作権の問題はあるので、以下省略]

USDEC, NMPF commend decision to welcome Japan into TPP talks,Dairy Herd,13.4.12
The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) applaud the United States’ decision to welcome Japan into Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade negotiations.
“Japan greatly enhances the potential value of the TPP to U.S. dairy producers and processors,” says Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president for strategic initiatives and trade policy, USDEC and NMPF. “Japan is the third-largest economy in the world and already a major dairy importer. Reducing excessive tariffs and removing non-tariff barriers to trade will significantly increase U.S. dairy export opportunities, which helps drive overall U.S. dairy industry growth.”

UPDATE 6-Japan, US agree on Tokyo joining Trans-Pacific trade talks,Reuters,13.4.12
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Powerful U.S. lawmakers from Michigan, the traditional heart of the U.S. auto sector, also expressed concern.

Representative Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said he would not support Japan's entry into TPP without "airtight assurances" it will address longstanding barriers to U.S. auto, insurance and agricultural exports.

Representative Sandy Levin, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, who is also from Michigan, said the deal announced on Friday "does not provide an adequate basis for Japan's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership."

Levin vowed to use the next several months to push for tougher preconditions for Japan to join the talks.
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US approves Japan entry into TPP trade talks ,AP,13.4.12
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The Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said the administration was counting on support from most Republican members and enough Democrats to overcome resistance, particularly from House members representing automotive interests.

Both Democrats and Republicans, particularly from the auto-producing state of Michigan, were quick to voice stiff opposition to Japan joining. Some other lawmakers voiced support.

Republican Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee Committee, said he would not endorse Japan's participation without assurances it wouldn't diminish the scope of the negotiations or delay the goal of concluding the TPP negotiations this year - already viewed as a tough deadline.

"The bottom line is Japan must address its longstanding tariff and non-tariff barriers to U.S. exports - in particular on autos, insurance and agriculture," Camp said.

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TPP membership is a must, former AIT chairman says,Taipei Times,13.4.11

台湾のＴＰＰ参加は絶対必要―米国在台湾協会（ＴＰＰは米国の中国包囲戦略の重要な一環であることを露見―農業情報研究所）

Taiwan needs to continue to work seriously toward joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if it wants to retain its economic competitiveness, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush said yesterday.

This is vital because the proposed free-trade alliance of Pacific-Rim countries could better integrate the nation into the global economy and produce the structural adjustments it needs to enhance its economic power, Bush said at a seminar in Taipei.

The move for Taiwan may not be easy due to opposition from Beijing, he said, but it is important for the government to make the case that it is necessary for the nation’s development.

“This is not so much an issue of political dignity; it is an issue of economic prosperity,” Bush said a day after the launch of a Chinese-language edition of his new book titled Uncharted Strait: The Future of China-Taiwan Relations.

As Taiwan is entering a transition period of social and economic development, it will need to establish a knowledge-based economy in line with world trends, Bush said.

“Taiwan will face some difficult challenges even if China were not such an important factor, even if China did not exist,” the former diplomat said.

Those challenges include a growing central government budget deficit, unemployment and income inequality — which will require structural reforms, Bush said.

Through entry to the TPP Taiwan could establish stronger ties with its trade partners and reduce its economic dependence on China, he added.

However, such a “self-strengthening” process would require Taiwan to further liberalize its markets through methods such as eliminating protectionism and allowing greater market access, he said.

Bush reiterated his stance that the current situation on the Korean Peninsula has been limited to a “psychological test of wills” between North Korea and the US.

The real danger is what the North might be mulling — limited military attacks against a target under South Korea’s control, he said.

Such provocative action could result in retaliation by the South and lead to greater uncertainty and turmoil in the region, he said.

Asia-Pacific trade talks could stretch well into 2014 -analysts,Reuters,13.4.3
TPP交渉　日本の交渉参加がなくても今年中の妥結は難しい、日本が参加すれば来年中に妥結すると考えるのも楽観的にすぎると米前交渉官。日本の農産物関税、自動車・保険市場の障壁は難問、ベトナムが米国に要求する衣料品に対する関税・その他の障壁の除去という難問もある。
* Countries hope to complete negotiations this year
* Japan's bid to join the talks still under review
* Adding third-largest economy could complicate matters
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - Free-trade talks between the United States and 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region could stretch into late next year, especially if Japan joins the negotiations, former U.S. trade officials said on Wednesday.
"While it's true that meaningful progress has been made over the last 16 rounds, the negotiations are not close to conclusion by any reasonable measure," Jay Eizenstat, a former U.S. trade negotiator, said at a Washington International Trade Association event.
Even if Japan stays out of the talks, "I think it would be improbable to conclude negotiations this year. With the involvement of Japan, ... it's optimistic to think they will be concluded by the end of next year," Eizenstat said.
The 11 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact want to reach an accord this year, possibly as early as October, when regional leaders will gather in Bali for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Japan, the world's third-largest economy, asked in the past month to join the talks and is awaiting a formal decision by other TPP members.
That could come this month at an APEC trade ministers meeting in Surabaya, Indonesia. But even then, the Obama administration intends to give Congress 90 days notice before starting talks with Japan.
"There's a lot of things (like Japan joining the talks) ... that are happening that make this very complex and keeps adding to the difficulty of getting this done," said Allen Johnson, a former chief U.S. agricultural trade negotiator.
Since Japan is such an economic powerhouse, it will be much harder for the United States to demand that it eliminate virtually all of its agricultural tariffs, which has been Washington's approach with smaller free-trade partners, Johnson said.
Other issues with Japan, such as barriers to its auto and insurance markets, are expected to be tough to resolve by the end of this year, the former trade officials said.
The current TPP members are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei. Canada and Mexico joined the negotiations at the 15th round in New Zealand.
Don Johnson, a former textile trade negotiator and former member of Congress, said Vietnam is pushing hard for the United States to remove tariffs and other barriers to its clothing exports, but is running into opposition from some U.S. lawmakers.
"Even though we're heading into the 17th round (next month in Peru), we haven't reached the point now where we can tell exactly what (the deal) is going to look like," Johnson said.
"Of course, everyone would like to see it end this year, but that seems fairly optimistic," he said.

China left out of Obama free trade party,FT.com,13.4.2
Geoff Dyer
Washington seeks deal with the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
With the rise of China in its sights, the Obama administration has posted marines in Darwin, Australia and increased the number of warships visiting Subic Bay in the Philippines. The “pivot” to Asia now has a new stopover: Brussels.
After years of discussing the idea, the US and the EU are finally starting to negotiate a free-trade agreement which would form an economic zone covering 40 per cent of the world’s gross domestic products.
At the same time, momentum is building behind another important trade initiative, the Trans-Pacific Partnership which brings together the US with several of the Asia-Pacific region’s most dynamic economies: Singapore, Australia, Vietnam and – since two weeks ago – Japan. It will come as a surprise to anyone who spent a lot of time on the campaign trail last year but free-trade agreements have emerged as one of the biggest priorities of President Barack Obama’s second term.
The striking feature of this burst of free trading is who is absent. The agreements are an important part of the fresh ways Washington is developing to deal with China, the world’s biggest exporter of manufactured goods. After urging China to behave as “a responsible stakeholder” and after the brief flirtation with a G2 arrangement in Mr Obama’s first year, the new trade approach might be characterised as ABC – Anyone But China.
Supporters of the US-EU trade pact complain that it is about more than China. They point to the important boost to growth that could flow from a deal between two partners which already have a two-way annual trade in goods and services of $1tn.
But much of the substance of the EU talks and of TPP points to China. The agenda includes state subsidies for business and protecting intellectual property – precisely the sorts of issues that are becoming huge bones of contention with Beijing. If the US can get enough important countries to sign up, it hopes to establish global trading standards that China would feel obliged to respect.
On Capitol Hill, where free trade is not an easy sell in an era of unemployment of more than 7.5 per cent, the China angle is being used to rally support.
“This is very much part of our China strategy,” an aide to a leading Republican senator puts it, talking of the discussions with the EU.
More broadly, the two trade negotiations reflect a different approach to global governance. The prolonged deadlock over the Doha trade round, with similar stalemates about climate change, small arms and other issues, has generated profound scepticism about the idea of ever achieving global agreements on important issues.
The US is trying to rewrite global trade rules behind our backs
- Chinese official
TPP and the US-EU trade talks represent an alternative strategy, an attempt to forge fresh rules by appealing to smaller groups of like-minded nations, in this case working around China rather than with Beijing. Supporters say this is not an abandonment of global institutions such as the World Trade Organisation but simply a realistic assessment of how to get things done.
The big question, of course, is how China will react. Ever since it joined the WTO more than a decade ago, China has had one foot inside the global trading system and one outside.
On most of the occasions that China has lost legal challenges at the WTO, it has implemented the rulings and made its trade laws compliant. But Beijing has yet to open up government procurement, an important factor in an economy like China’s. At the same time, the extensive allegations of Chinese hacking of trade secrets from other countries are seen by many as an affront to the very idea of free trade.
Beijing has strong views about what is really going on. “The US is trying to rewrite global trade rules behind our backs,” says a senior Chinese official.
The risk of the new US approach is that it could encourage China to turn its back even more on the global trading system, diminishing the incentive to comply rather than intensifying it. If that were to happen, the US-EU trade talks would not herald a new era of economic integration but rather another nail in the coffin of globalisation.
米国の新しいアプローチの危険性は、中国がグローバル貿易システムにますます背を向けるように仕向け、それを強化するより、それに従う気をなくさせてしまうことだ。もしそんなことになれば、米国－EU貿易交渉は、経済統合の新時代を開くというより、グローバル化の命取りのもうひとつの要因になるだろう。

Trade deals show power politics is back,FT.com,13.4.1
パリ政治学院教授・Zaki Laïdi

　米国とEUの自由貿易協定（FTA）を期待してほとんどすべての人が興奮している。だが、ちょっと待て。こういう協定の追求は、冷戦後の国際関係の土台である多国間主義（multilateralism）を蝕んでいる。

　もはや米国のみが超大国ではなくなった多極的世界の出現は、原理的には「多国間主義」―共有する目標の追求における国家間の制度的協同―をあと押しすべきものだ。それは、世界貿易機関（WTO）を通しての自由貿易、世界銀行を通して貧困削減、国連を通しての国際安全保障を達成をあと押しすべきものである。

　ところが、現実は異なる。諸国は二国間ベースで相手から譲歩を引き出し、あるいは国の主権を守るために、グロ―バルな協定から脱出しようとしている。

　WTOのケースをみよう。農業補助金をめぐるインドと米国の対立は、2008年夏に最終的妥結を頓挫させた。これは、2001年にカタールで始まったドーハ・ラウンド貿易交渉を―最終的に―終わらせることになるだろう。交渉は米国とインドの衝突以来、停止したままだ。この失敗の主な責任は、多角的貿易システムはもはや今までのように利益をもたらさないと信じる米国に帰せられる。米国は二国間主義の強化を通しての市場アクセスの確保を優先する。かくして、オバマ政府は、アジアとの環太平洋パートナーシップ協定（TPP）を推進、より最近ではヨーロッパとの環大西洋貿易・投資パートナーシップ協定（TTIP）締結を推進する。

　この場合、戦略的目標は規制基準に高いバーを設けることで中国の台頭を封じ込めることである。目新しいのは、長きにわたり多国間主義を擁護してきたヨーロッパが、その貿易政策の政治的責任を完全には引き受けられないというのに、二国間主義の誘惑に屈服しつつあることだ。

　もしTPPまたはTTIPが実現すれば、それらはWTOを殺す。良かれ悪しかれ、この機関は貿易基準が交渉される場ではなくなる。・・・

冷戦終結以来、ヨーロッパ人は国際公共財の存在―そして国家主権の重要性の減退を深く信じてきた。米国および新興国の行いはその正反対のことを示唆する。パワーポリティックス（権力政治、武力外交）が戻ってきた。多国間主義は死に瀕している。
Since the end of the cold war, Europeans have believed deeply in the existence of a global commons – and the declining importance of national sovereignty. The conduct of both the US and emerging countries suggests the opposite. Power politics is back. Multilateralism is dying.

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Almost everyone seems excited about the prospect of a free-trade agreement between the US and the EU. But not so fast. The pursuit of such deals is eroding multilateralism, the foundation of post-cold war international relations.

In principle, the emergence of a multipolar world, in which the US is no longer the only very powerful country, should boost “multilateralism” – institutionalised co-operation among states in pursuit of shared objectives. It should boost efforts to achieve free trade via the World Trade Organisation, poverty reduction through the World Bank, and international security through the UN.

Yet the reality is different. Countries are seeking to extricate themselves from global agreements in order to extract concessions from partners on a bilateral basis or to protect national sovereignty.

Take the case of the WTO. A conflict between India and the US over agricultural subsidies derailed a final compromise in the summer of 2008. This would have – finally – concluded the Doha round of trade talks, which were launched in Qatar in 2001. Negotiations have stalled since the US-India spat. The main responsibility for this failure falls on the US, which believes the system of multilateral trade no longer offers the advantages it used to. The priority for the US is to secure access to markets through enhanced bilateralism. Hence the Obama administration’s drive to agree the trans-Pacific Partnership for Asia and, more recently, to conclude the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for Europe.

In each case, the strategic objective is to contain China’s rise by setting a high bar for regulatory standards. The novelty is that Europe, which has long defended multilateralism, is now succumbing to the temptation of bilateralism even while it remains completely incapable of assuming political responsibility for its trade policy.

If the TPP or TTIP come into being, they will kill the WTO. For better or for worse, the organisation will cease to be the place where trade standards are negotiated.

A free-trade agreement with the US does offer real opportunities for Europe but it also presents two dangers. The first is that it will act in haste in negotiating such a complex agreement by 2014, while also trying to resolve the eurozone crisis. The second is to be trapped by the US, which will already have negotiated standards in the TPP and attempt to impose the same standards on the Europeans, who will be too deep into the negotiations to challenge them effectively.

It is important to understand that the collapse of multilateral trade we are witnessing today is far from being an isolated case. Climate talks since the 2009 Copenhagen conference have challenged the multilateralism heralded by the Kyoto protocol of 1997. The idea then was to move forward on the basis of a shared objective – the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Today countries only make commitments on climate change on the basis of a very narrow assessment of their national interests. The idea that shared commitments – rather than individual interests – shape behaviour is now dead.

In a multipolar world, not only is the number of power centres increasing, so is the number of national interests. For example, the recent climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, included more than a dozen national groupings, such as those from developing and landlocked countries. The WTO is in a similar situation. The Doha round has become frighteningly complex because of the incredible inflation of issues raised by various actors.

This proliferation of interests reflects an erosion of international consensus across many of the areas around which states had rallied in the aftermath of the cold war. One need only compare the enthusiasm surrounding the Rio conference in 1992 with the dramatic failure last year of the Rio+20 environment summit. Many developing countries openly reject the discourse on ecology and climate change used by western campaign groups.

International security has also been weakened by the return to narrow national interests. Since the Nato-led intervention in Libya, the global consensus that seemed to be forming around the idea of “responsibility to protect” has been shattered because many emerging countries see it as a trap that will end up justifying regime change.

That is why they are reluctant to support intervention on behalf of the opposition in Syria. Under Brazil’s leadership, emerging countries are pushing hard for a UN resolution that removes the connection between the doctrine of responsibility to protect and the possible use of force. They want a toothless resolution aiming at sheltering national sovereignty against any external infringement.

Since the end of the cold war, Europeans have believed deeply in the existence of a global commons – and the declining importance of national sovereignty. The conduct of both the US and emerging countries suggests the opposite. Power politics is back. Multilateralism is dying.

The writer is a professor at Sciences Po in Paris

US trade chief vows to fight for farmers,FT.com,13.3.20
米通商代表代理、日本とEUとの貿易交渉で米国農民のために闘う。ただし、予算カット（→米国　歳出強制削減で肉不足の恐れ　検査官一時解雇で食肉処理工場が操業できず）で交渉要員が十分に確保できず、行政の交渉能力が削がれる恐れがある。
The top US trade official has vowed to battle for US farmers in trade talks with the EU and Japan.

“We take this very seriously,” Demetrios Marantis, acting US trade representative (USTR), told lawmakers on the Senate finance committee, in response to a question from Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican.

“We have significant export success in agriculture. We face real challenges with both the EU and Japan – historic issues,” Mr Marantis said. “We will continue to work with you to fight for US ag interests,” he said.
Mr Marantis’s efforts to reassure lawmakers came as the US is pressing ahead with negotiations for Japan’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal involving nearly a dozen nations that participants hope to conclude this year. The US is also preparing to launch formal negotiations with the EU on a transatlantic trade deal in the summer.
There has been pressure in EU and Japan to exclude market access for US farm products from the talks. But US trade representative officials – facing pressure from members of Congress representing the country’s rural heartland – have been fighting back.
Mr Marantis told lawmakers that Barack Obama’s second-term trade agenda involved “continued progress and bold steps”. He said the US administration was prepared to seek “fast track” negotiating authority from Congress, which would smooth passage of the transatlantic and transpacific trade deals.
“We stand ready to begin,” Mr Marantis said. However, he warned that budget cuts could damage the administration’s ability to conclude the trade agreements and launch new trade disputes, offering the latest glimpse of austerity hitting US government agencies.
Mr Marantis said $2.6m of funding reductions for the trade representative under sequestration– and an extra $1m in cuts under a bill moving through Congress this week to avert a government shutdown – threatened to “compromise” the job of US negotiators.
“[It] could undermine USTR’s ability to conduct multiple major trade negotiations simultaneously as well as severely compromise enforcement,” Mr Marantis said. “We have so much on our plate,” he added.
Rumours persist that the president may nominate as his next trade representative the chief architect of this proposal to end USTR as we know it

- Orrin Hatch, Republican Senator
Mr Marantis, a former senior Democratic aide to the Senate finance committee, has temporarily taken over as the top US trade official after the departure of Ron Kirk, who served in that post throughout Mr Obama’s first term.
The US president has yet to nominate a replacement for Mr Kirk to spearhead what has become a more ambitious trade agenda. Jeffrey Zients, the acting budget director, has long been seen as a leading candidate for the job. But both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have signalled displeasure at such a choice, particularly since Mr Zients had developed a plan to fold USTR into the commerce department.
“Sadly, rumours persist that the president may nominate as his next trade representative the chief architect of this proposal to end USTR as we know it,” said Orrin Hatch, the senior Republican on the Senate finance committee. “I hope he doesn’t do that but we’ll deal with whatever happens,” Mr Hatch said, adding that Mr Marantis would make a “good USTR” instead.
Mr Marantis responded in his testimony to worries about Japan’s accession to TPP talks from Debbie Stabenow, a Democratic senator from Michigan. She said there were insufficient guarantees that US carmakers would benefit.
“It’s of serious concern to the president and we are working very hard to ensure that should Japan join the TPP that we are able to address the longstanding issues that we’ve had in the auto sector,” Mr Marantis said. “We’ve made progress with Japan but our work continues,” he added.

The benefits of a free-trade deal with Japan(Editorial),The Washington Post,13.3.16
THERE WAS a time, a couple of decades ago, when the trade relationship between the United States and Japan was one of the hottest policy issues in Washington. The rise of China, coupled with Japan’s two decades of economic stagnation, eclipsed concerns — overblown in hindsight — about this country’s chronic trade deficit with Japan. Now, U.S.-Japan trade is once again rising on the policy agenda, and it’s critical for both countries and for the world that Americans avoid the simplistic and emotional arguments that marred past debates.
On Friday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan will join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade talks, a U.S.-led effort to bind a dozen Pacific Rim nations in a tariff-slashing pact that will boost efficiency and growth across a region that, including Japan, accounts for 40 percent of the world’s economic output.
Mr. Abe did so at considerable political risk, because the prospect of liberalized imports frightens Japan’s farmers and other entrenched interest groups. Mr. Abe recognizes that greater international competition could spur much-needed restructuring of Japan’s domestic economy, which, along with monetary expansion and fiscal stimulus, is one of the new prime minister’s three policy “arrows.” A TPP deal that includes Japan could fortify the U.S.-Japan alliance as a peaceful counterweight to an ambitious China.
TPP, therefore, serves U.S. strategic, as well as economic, interests. Alas, some of the same voices that often oppose free trade are already raising red flags. On Thursday, eight senators and 35 members of the House, all Democrats, sent President Obama a letter complaining about U.S. carmakers’ historical lack of access to Japan’s auto market, suggesting that, with a year-end deadline for completing the talks, it’s too late to resolve “these long-standing, economically harmful practices.” But the point of free trade is to enable each country to maximize its comparative advantages, not to guarantee equal flows of every good in each direction. Actually, the potential opening of Japan’s agricultural and other markets to U.S. goods under TPP could offset deficits that might persist in the auto market.
The twin goals of shoring up Asian allies and reducing our trade deficit would also be served by maximizing U.S. natural gas exports — especially to Japan, which is eager for stable new energy supplies to replace lost nuclear generating capacity. Again, some in Congress object, on the protectionist grounds that exports would raise the price of gas for U.S. users, both industrial and residential. And, once again, Economics 101 argues for the freest possible trade. Robust foreign demand for U.S. gas will promote greater production over the long run, and the additional supply will help moderate prices at home and abroad.
Fortunately, Mr. Obama has embraced the strategic and economic potential of TPP and of a similar proposed agreement with Europe. To bring them into being, he’ll have to push back against those in his own country, and his own party, who can’t let go of yesteryear’s trade conflicts.

Japan May Open Beef in U.S.-Led Trade Talks, Former Adviser Says,Bloomberg,13.3.15

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may sacrifice barriers protecting Japan’s beef and wheat farmers as he joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, said a former government adviser on farm policy.

Japan will fight to maintain tariffs on rice, sugar and dairy products, said Shinichi Shogenji, an agricultural science professor at Nagoya University who was chairman of the food security advisory panel for the Cabinet in 2007 during Abe’s first term as leader. The prime minister will announce Japan’s entry to the TPP negotiations today, according to a government official who asked not to be named ahead of the statement.

“Japan may be able to protect about 5 percent of its total goods in the TPP talks,” Shogenji said in an interview on March 12. “Rice is the national staple, sugar is vital to Okinawa prefecture and milk is what our kids drink.”

Eliminating the 38.5 percent tariff on beef would probably spur a jump of as much as 40 percent in imports and help exporters including the U.S. and Australia displace half of local produce, according to Tetsuro Shimizu, a general manager at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo. Cutting the 252 percent tariff on wheat and ending the agriculture ministry’s control of purchases may bring 600,000 metric tons a year in shipments, said Masaaki Kadota, executive director at Japan Flour Millers Association.

“While we must maintain domestic production of rice and milk to ensure food security, beef may be an easier sector to concede,” Shogenji said. “Tariffs on beef are not so high compared with other items, and our wagyu beef is a high-quality product that can compete with imports.”

Toyota, Sumitomo

Japan imposes tariffs of 778 percent on rice imports, 328 percent on sugar and 218 percent on powdered milk.

Keidanren, the nation’s biggest business lobby with members including Toyota Motor Corp. and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., urged the government to join the partnership to increase the competitiveness of exporters. JA Group, the largest farmers’organization, is against the pact and members of Abe’s own ruling Liberal Democratic Party have called for special treatment for agricultural produce including beef and wheat.

While agriculture, forestry and fisheries make up less than 2 percent of Japan’s economic output, JA Group’s 10 million members make up 8 percent of the population, partly thanks to a large number of part-time farmers.

In previous free-trade negotiations with countries including Thailand, India and Chile, Japan was able to exclude rice, wheat, sugar, beef and dairy products.

Export Benefit

“The TPP talks aim for a high level of liberalization and it will be difficult for Japan to protect them all,” Satoshi Fujiwara, vice president at the equity research department of Nomura Securities Co., said on March 13 “The nation may have to give up products excluding rice and sugar.”

Japan already depends on imports for 60 percent of its food and joining the TPP could help exporters from Nissan Motor Co. to Sony Corp. compete with rivals from South Korea to the U.S.

The TPP started in 2005 with Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand as a pact to open trade in goods, services and government procurement. Negotiations have extended to Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam and the U.S., which aims to complete the TPP talks by the end of 2013.

Japan is already Asia’s biggest beef importer and bought 515,108 tons of the meat worth 221 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in 2012, data from the agriculture ministry show. Australia accounted for 62 percent of shipments, followed by the U.S. with 26 percent and New Zealand at 6.1 percent.

The nation is the second-largest wheat buyer, with domestic producers meeting only about 10 percent of requirements, compared with almost 100 percent for rice and milk, and 40 percent for sugar, Shogenji said.

Japan imported 5.57 million tons of food wheat last fiscal year, according to the agriculture ministry. The U.S. was the largest supplier, accounting for 58 percent, followed by Canadawith 23 percent and Australia at 18 percent.

Pacific trade talks make progress, any Japan entry not quick,Reuters,3.13

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Progress is being made in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade talks but hurdles remain and Japan is unlikely to be ready to join the next round in May, negotiators said on Wednesday, pointing to a tough road for the 11 countries hoping to sign an agreement this year.

If Japan expresses its desire to take part, it must first hold bilateral meetings with existing members and be supported by a consensus to "keep up the good momentum" going into the next talks in Peru, said Singapore's negotiator, Ng Bee Kim.

"I don't think we're looking at Japan specifically coming on board in Lima," Ng said at a press conference after the 16th round of the talks ended in Singapore.

The TPP, which has grown from seven countries, aims to eliminate barriers to goods and services and address issues including the movement of electronic data, market access for financial firms and copyright protection.

Japanese media say Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce on Friday that Japan would like to join the talks.

A statement said "solid progress" was made in the Singapore session to bridge gaps in a number of areas and that there were advances on regulatory issues, telecommunications, customs and development.

A range of "more challenging areas" remain, including intellectual property, the environment, competition and labour, said the statement by Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The United States and others hope to wrap up negotiations by the end of this year or, in an even more ambitious scenario, by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on the Indonesian island of Bali in October.

Beyond the United States, the TPP countries are Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. The next round of talks in Lima is due to be held from May 15-24.

PH urged to join TPP free trade talks,ABC-CBN News,13.2.22
フィリピンは憲法が定める外国人所有権制限のような政治的に微妙な問題も交渉のテーブルにのせてTPPに加われ―米国務省高官
MANILA, Philippines - A visiting senior US State Department official has said the Philippines must be willing to negotiate even a politically sensitive issue like foreign ownership limits, if it wants to join the US and 10 other nations in talks aimed at creating an Asia free trade pact.
"Whether that requires changes to your Constitution I can’t opine but there’s gonna be significant opening up of market once you join TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and that’s tough. That’s why you have negotiations,”US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose W. Fernandez told businessmen in Makati.
Makati Business Club Chairman Ramon del Rosario said the Philippines should make the necessary reforms without delay, and join the negotiations before a deal among the 11 nations is struck. He said the Philippines will lose having a greater voice in the agreement if it joins later.
"At this point you can still participate in drafting what the agreement will consist of because it’s not yet cast in stone. But once the agreement has been firmed up, then you can only participate in whatever it is that they agreed to formulate,” del Rosario said in an interview."You can no longer change the agreement. That’s the difference in coming in early and coming in late,” he added.
The MBC supports relaxing foreign ownership limits, either through repeal of existing laws or changing the Philippine Constitution, which puts a 40% cap on foreign ownership in utilities, real estate and natural resources.
The 11 TPP countries - the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Australia and New Zealand - hope to finish the talks this year.

Indonesia shows little interest in US-led Pacific partnership,The Jakarta Post,13.1.31
Indonesia has expressed a lack of interest in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) even though neighboring countries, the Philippines and Thailand, will likely join the United States-led regional trade pact.
Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said on Wednesday that Indonesia still had not made a full assessment of the TPP and would study thoroughly any benefits it stood to gain from entry into the partnership.
“I’ve been saying to the people that we’re not at the point of being able to ascertain whether or not the TPP will be beneficial to Indonesia. At the same time, we are dealing with all the bilateral agreements that we are engaged with as well as regional [partnerships],” Gita said during a trade conference in Jakarta.
Based on the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Agreement (P4) between Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore that came into force in 2006, the TPP is currently being considered by 11 countries across the Pacific rim, including South Korea and Japan, with a combined gross domestic product of US$21 trillion and accounting for 30 percent of global output.
It aims to go beyond a regular free trade accord, covering areas usually excluded from trade agreements, including government procurement, and labor, environment and intellectual property standards.
Although TPP leaders aim to conclude the pact by December, major hurdles remain. They include market access issues, such as liberalization of trade barriers on dairy products, sugar and rice, import tariffs on textiles, clothing and footwear, and services trade reforms.
The Trade Ministry’s director general for international trade cooperation Iman Pambagyo said that Indonesia was currently focused on two priorities: The preparations for the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community expected in 2015, and the talks for the regional comprehensive economic partnership planned for May this year.
“These are the priorities that we see as more feasible to complete,” he said, adding that in terms of bilateral agreements, Indonesia aimed to accelerate free trade negotiations with South Korea.
Jeffrey J. Schott, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that the TPP would help Indonesia maintain its competitive edge in the Asia-Pacific region.
“You have to benchmark with your neighbors, ensure that your firms stay competitive, otherwise investors would rather invest in other countries. Right now, investment is still coming in, but you have to ensure the policy environment going forward is conducive so that investment will continue to flow,” he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the conference.
According to the institute’s estimate, the TPP accounts for 27 percent of Indonesian exports.
The preferences under the pact would allow Indonesia’s exports, worth US$4.5 billion, to better compete with similar goods from Vietnam, which has already joined.
Apart from that, Indonesia could also see its gross domestic product (GDP) increase by 4 percent above baseline by 2025, with exports surging by almost 20 percent.

Indonesia warned off trans-Pacific trade pact,Business Times,13.1.28
インドネシアはTPPに参加すべからず　ASEAN強化を妨げる

JAKARTA: A growing Indonesia-America economic relationship does not mean Indonesia should join the US-led trans-Pacific Partnership, according to John Riady, the chairman of the US-Indonesia bilateral committee of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The TPP is a comprehensive multilateral investment and trade agreement currently under negotiation by nine countries, including Australia, Singapore and Vietnam. President Barack Obama announced the US' intention to participate in the treaty in 2009. Negotiations have continued since then, with the 15th round taking place in New Zealand last December.
"I don't think Indonesia will, or perhaps should, join the TPP at our stage of development," Riady said at a US-Indonesia Society event on Wednesday.
"We don't have the infrastructure so it would maybe hurt us."

Riady added that joining the TPP would divert Indonesia's focus from consolidating the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the fact that Asean member states were already in TPP discussions had created a "divide in Asean".
Suzie Sudarman, the director of the University of Indonesia's American Studies Centre said the TPP represented a more liberal approach to international trade and investment compared to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a multilateral scheme that has China as a founding member and does not include the US.
Suzie compared the two agreements as a "war between two titans" - the US and China.
Asked which path Indonesia would choose to take, Suzie said: "Indonesia won't choose. Politicians will play to the populace according to the elections. This is what makes Indonesia unpredictable. Eventually, you have to choose."
Andrew White, the managing director of AmCham Indonesia, said that while Indonesian membership of the TPP might be an ideal, it did not need to be a priority.
"In a philosophical sense, the TPP is a good thing. Business lives in the present and the aim is trying to resolve uncertainty. But can that be achieved without the TPP? The answer I think is yes."
White said that the country needed to focus on its overall ease of doing business in order to attract investment. The World Bank ranked Indonesia 130th out of 185 economies for ease of doing business in 2012.
Arifin Siregar, a former Indonesian ambassador to the US and currently on the US-Indonesia Society's board of trustees, agreed that infrastructure will have to increase before Indonesia could enter schemes such as the TPP.
Steve Okun, the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce, disagreed that lack of development was a barrier to Indonesian involvement in the TPP.
"A TPP ideally is open for all countries, if you look at the development levels of the US and Singapore and Australia and Vietnam; they are all different. Yet the TPP is being drafted in such a way that takes into account, hopefully, any economy and any government at any stage of development."

Interest in TPP deal expressed anew as US executives visit,Business World,13.1.24
フィリピンは最終的にはTPPに加わるだろう　アキノ大統領
THE PHILIPPINES could finally seek entry to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after President Benigno S. C. Aquino III again expressed interest in a meeting with US business leaders yesterday.

“They [businessmen] asked questions on TPP. The President said we are interested in pursuing the TPP,” said Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo, who was present at the meeting
“They raised it as a question... They [businessmen] are for it,” he added.
The TPP, currently being discussed by 11 countries, is expected to further liberalize trade in the Asia-Pacific region. The Philippines, while expressing interest, has balked at the inclusion of non-trade standards as prerequisites for membership.
The deal is also seen as a means for Washington to ensure its continuing involvement in the region amid increasing Chinese dominance.
The president, said Mr. Domingo expressed optimism regarding the country’s TPP entry given growing business interest.
Yesterday’s meeting was facilitated by the US-Philippines Society, a lobby group chaired by businessmen Manuel V. Pangilinan and former US Ambassador to the Philippines John D. Negroponte.
Also present were Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario.
The Trade secretary claimed the businessmen, who are on a three-day visit, wanted to “increase business relationships” with the Philippines and make the country the “hub for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) manufacturing by US companies.”
Also discussed were the country’s medical tourism prospects, as well as the provision of medical care for Filipinos in the US, Mr. Domingo said.

S. Korea faces U.S. pressure to join Trans-Pacific trade talks: U.S. expert ,Yonhap,13.1.8
米国の東北アジア専門家、米国は今年、韓国新政府に対してＴＰＰ交渉に参加するように圧力をかけるだろう。

SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States is expected to call on South Korea's new government this year to join negotiations aimed at forging a Pacific-wide free trade deal, an American expert on Northeast Asia said Tuesday, a pact seen as a pillar of U.S. President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia.

The U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a key part of Washington's efforts to boost its economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region and is considered a counterbalance to the rise of China. South Korea, which has a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S., remained non-committal in joining the ongoing talks.

"Until last year, there has been no pressure from Washington upon Seoul to join TPP," said Gordon Flake, the U.S. expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation think-tank in Washington, at a forum in Seoul.

"I predict and I believe, in 2013, that there will be a growing call from the United States for Korea to join TPP," Flake said.

The U.S. wants to conclude TPP talks by the end of this year. The negotiations involve Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam. Attention is being paid to whether South Korea and Japan, two of the leading economies in Asia, will join the discussion.

Flake said that the U.S. wants to persuade South Korea to join the TPP talks to force Japan in becoming a part of the Pacific-wide trade negotiations.

"One of (the) greatest benefits in Korea joining TPP (is that it) would force Japan to join TPP," Flake said.

"By Korea joining TPP, it becomes much more (of a) significant economic arrangement than it is right now," he said. "By Korea joining TPP, it helps the United States reinforce its desire for the 21st century trade agreement for a high-level, standard trade agreement."

"From an American perspective, there is no question that we have a deep and abiding national interest in better relations between Korea and Japan," Flake said.

If South Korea joins the TPP talks, the U.S.-proposed pact "will become a preeminent driving force for regional trade and investment organizations, particularly for service sectors," he said.

As for the near future of relations between South Korea and Japan, Flake said tougher roads are ahead due to the return to power of Japan's hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

If Abe revisits an apology by then-prime minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995 over Japan's wartime atrocities or visits the Yaskuni shrine that glorifies Japan's militaristic past, "Such action constitutes a type of provocation Korea can't back down," Flake said.

At the same time, leadership changes in both South Korea and Japan offer the two nations a fresh start after a year of diplomatic tensions in 2011, he said.

Abe sent special envoys to President-elect Park Geun-hye last week as a conciliatory gesture to mend ties.

"I think that President-elect Park is more likely to seek to repair ties with Japan and more likely to place Korea-Japan relations on the international context" than her predecessor, Flake said.

"Above all, the onus is on the Japanese side," he said.

2012年

TPP delays hurt farmers: NFF,Stock & Land,12.12.10
エンドレスにも見える交渉の遅れにオーストラリア農民は苛立っている。新たな輸出機会のと世界市場における貿易歪曲の削減はオーストラリア農民に不可欠

NATIONAL Farmers’ Federation (NFF) president Jock Laurie says the agricultural sector is growing increasingly frustrated over delays in Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

As the TPP discussions take place in New Zealand, the NFF has called on the Australian government to increase its focus on trade in order to deliver real outcomes for Australian farmers.

Mr Laurie said while there have been some small steps forward on trade, the ag sector is "growing restless over seemingly endless delays" in completing trade negotiations.

“Achieving new export market opportunities and reducing trade distortions within global markets is essential for Australia's farmers, given we export some 60 per cent of the food and fibre we grow,” Mr Laurie said.

"Yet agriculture has the highest trade distortions of any sector of merchandise trade, with average global tariffs more than three times greater for food and fibre products.

“While there have been some positive steps forward on trade, like the signing of the Australian-Malaysia free trade agreement, other negotiations seem to have stalled completely."

Mr Laurie said delays in reaching tangible outcomes were already putting Australian farmers at a disadvantage, with Australia lagging behind the US in wrapping up the beef trade agreement with South Korea.

“It’s time for real action, both in finalising Australia’s trade agreements with key export markets, and in liberalising global trade reform,” he said.

"The gains to Australian farmers, and indeed to the world’s farmers, from free trade are just too great to ignore."

NZ sets TPP signing terms,The New Zealand Herald,12.11.27

ニュージーランド　乳製品関税を撤廃し、国有薬品購入機関の存続が許されるのでなければTPPに調印しない。

New Zealand will not sign a Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement unless it removes tariffs on dairy products and allows the state-owned drug-buying agency to stay, Prime Minister John Key said yesterday.

"We are not prepared to see dairy excluded," he said.

"In the end, New Zealand can't sign up to the TPP if it excludes our biggest export."

Mr Key said it was standard in free trade deals to have a phasing out of tariffs but he wouldn't comment on the timeframe.

He was commenting ahead of the 15th round of TPP negotiations, in Auckland next week, when hundreds of negotiators from 11 countries will continue talks.

Last week, United States President Barack Obama chaired a meeting of seven of the 11 countries in Cambodia on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, where they set themselves a deadline of October next year to conclude the TPP.

Mr Key said yesterday that meeting would add momentum to the Auckland talks.

"Everyone has to benefit a little bit, but if we had to give away Pharmac, that wouldn't work for New Zealand either."

The US is seeking greater transparency in Pharmac's decision-making. Other sticking points are intellectual property provisions, agriculture, and state-owned enterprises.

Mr Key said President Obama was "deadly serious" about getting the deal concluded

Taiwan should focus on RCEP, not TPP: academics,Taipei News,12.11.24
台湾　TPPよりRCEPの方が利益が大きい。

Taiwan should focus on joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) instead of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), academics said yesterday.

Mignonne Chan (詹滿容), executive director of the Chinese Taipei Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center, said at a forum on regional integration that if Taiwan joins negotiations under the RCEP, the potential economic benefits would be twice as great as those under the TPP.

The RCEP was first discussed at the 19th ASEAN Summit in November last year. A RCEP framework was set out between the 10 ASEAN member states that maps out the general principles for broadening and deepening ASEAN’s engagement with its free-trade agreement partners. ASEAN members’ free-trade partners include Australia, China, South Korea and Japan.

The RCEP market is estimated to have a combined population of more than 3 billion and a combined GDP of about US$19.9 trillion. The integrated market would be the largest in the world, said Lin Chien-fu (林建甫), professor of economics at National Taiwan University.

He said that the combined GDP, population and trade volume of the RCEP would be bigger than the TPP, even if Canada, Japan and Mexico all join the TPP in future.

Long road ahead for TPP talks,BP,11.23

Experts say entering into the US-led free trade negotiations known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be a lengthy process due to constitutional requirements.

The government announced during US President Barack Obama's visit early this week that it will initiate the process to participate in TPP negotiations.

Sek Wannamethee, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's American and Pacific Department, said the process entails the Commerce Ministry holding public hearings on the TPP's effect on various sectors and submitting the findings for cabinet and parliamentary approval.

Mr Obama's visit to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia signalled a strategic rebalancing of US power in Southeast Asia at a time when the region is experiencing geopolitical tensions from conflict in the South China Sea, democratic reforms in Myanmar and the change in leadership in China.

"Thailand being chosen as the first destination for the visit is a recognition of our strategic role in the region," said Mr Sek.

The government's announcement of its intention to join the TPP is the start of the domestic legislative process.

Trade officials will meet with their US counterparts in accordance with the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.

Robert Fitts, director of the American Studies programme at Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Security and International Studies, said members of the TPP negotiate specific issues.

Some of the 20 individual issues to date have already been resolved.

Negotiations on contentious issues such as intellectual property rights and foods are unfinished and remain on the table.

Mr Fitts said the immediate priority for Mr Obama is the economic front, with an extension of the public debt ceiling and tax cuts needed to ensure US$600 billion worth of fiscal stimulus measures can continue past their expiry on Dec 31.

The US public debt ceiling almost equals gross domestic product, but the government can borrow at low interest rates due to loose monetary policy.

The Democrats, who will retain control of the Senate, are intent on raising taxes on the wealthy, while the Republicans, who will still dominate the House of Representatives, campaigned against tax increases.

Mr Fitts said US foreign policy in Asia will take into account China's rising economic might.

"The US has to accept the rise of China. But the US's objective is to balance it. The US wants to offer an alternative space for regional arrangement," he said.

Prof Klaus Larres of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said economic interdependence between the US and Europe means the country will sustain its cooperation with Europe while increasing its role in Asia.

He said the US's Southeast Asian initiative will go down in history as Mr Obama's most important legacy after he leaves office in four years.

Trade plan drawn up with US,Bangkok Post,12.11.21
The United States and Asean have drawn up a new framework for economic cooperation to expand trade and investment.

The so-called US-Asean Expanded Economic Engagement, or E3 initiative, was agreed upon during a meeting between US President Barack Obama and leaders of the 10 Asean nations yesterday in Phnom Penh.

The E3 initiative will create new business opportunities and jobs in all 11 countries, a White House statement said.

It identifies specific ways in which to facilitate US-Asean trade and investment, increase efficiency and competitiveness of trade flows and supply chains throughout Asean, and build greater awareness of the commercial opportunities that the growing US-Asean economic relationship presents.

"By working together on these E3 initiatives, the US and Asean will lay the groundwork for Asean countries to prepare to join high-standard trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement," the statement said.

E3 will begin with a set of concrete joint activities that will include:

- Negotiation of a US-Asean trade facilitation agreement such as simplified customs procedures and increased transparency of customs administration.

- Joint development of information and communications technology principles, to guide policymakers on issues like cross-border information flows.

- Joint development of investment principles to address essential elements of investment policies, including market access, non-discrimination, investor protection, transparency, and responsible business conduct.

- Additional work on standards development and practices for small- and medium-sized enterprises and trade and the environment.

Asean leaders begin RCEP negotiations,Bangkok Post,12.11.21

TPPよりRCEPを

PHNOM PENH : Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and their six regional free-trade partners officially kicked off negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) yesterday.

The meeting between the regional grouping and the leaders of Australia, China, India, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand underscored the 21st Asean Summit and Related Summits in Cambodia.

The RCEP was first discussed at the 19th Asean Summit in November last year, when leaders of the 10 Asean member states adopted the framework for the RCEP, which sets out the general principles for broadening and deepening Asean's engagement with its free trade agreement partners.

Yesterday's milestone signalled the determination and commitment of Asean to lead the way in assembling the emerging regional economic architecture, but came amid a visit to Southeast Asia by US President Barack Obama who has been pushing for progress on his own US-led free trade negotiations known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The RCEP would be the largest regional trading arrangement in the world to date.

The potential free trade agreements between Asean and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand could eventually lead to the creation of an integrated market that spans 16 countries with a combined market population of more than 3 billion people and a combined GDP of about US$19.78 trillion based on 2011 figures.

With the region accounting for more than half of the global market and about a third of the global economic output, there is no doubt that a successful RCEP would significantly boost global trade and investment, said Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of Asean.

The beginning of negotiations in Phnom Penh comes at a time when economic recovery efforts continue to be seriously challenged by the volatile global financial and economic situation.

The RCEP is a strategy aimed at maintaining regional growth by ensuring that markets of the participating countries remain open and competitive.

Leaders also endorsed the RCEP's Guiding Principles and Objectives for Negotiating adopted by their Economic Ministers in Siem Reap in August this year. Based on these guiding principles, the RCEP would allow the region's other economic partners to eventually draw into the agreement.

The RCEP is also expected to include economic and technical cooperation elements that would allow all parties, regardless of their level of development, to maximise the opportunities made available by deeper and broader economic engagements.

Meanwhile, the United States called a meeting of members of the TPP on the sidelines of the Asean-organised summit yesterday in an apparent effort to accelerate its own free-trade talks.

Leaders of Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand joined yesterday's meeting chaired by Mr Obama, who was in Cambodia for the East Asia Summit.

The meeting was called just before the 10-nation Asean bloc and leaders of China, Japan, South Korean, India, Australia and New Zealand met to discuss the RCEP agreement.

Asean sources said Mr Obama explored ways forward to accelerate the TPP process.

Mr Obama has previously said he hoped substantive elements of the TPP would be in place within this year.

Mr Obama's move to hold TPP talks on the sidelines in Phnom Penh shows his desire to push TPP negotiations ahead, Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed told his country's The Star newspaper.

The special meeting was requested by the White House before Mr Obama's re-election.

The 15th round of TPP negotiations will be held in New Zealand from Dec 3 to Dec 12.

Thailand has announced its decision to join the TPP talks amid criticism of the deal, but trade officials say negotiations among the 11 partners are still complex and require a lot of work.

Supachai Panitchpakdi, the head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, said Asean and Thailand should focus on the RCEP instead of the TPP. "If Thailand jumps into the TPP, we will not be able to run the universal health scheme, for example," he said. "Let's deal with deals under the WTO or the RCEP first."

Obama requests TPP meet with Asean leaders,The Star,12.11.20

PHNOM PENH: United States President Barack Obama has requested for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) meeting with some of the Asean leaders attending the Asean Summit and Related Summits here.

The meeting to be held here today is expected to explore ways and exchange views on how to conclude the TPP negotiations.

Officials said the special meeting was requested by the White House before Obama's re-election.

However, only half of the TPP countries are attending the meeting as Canada, Mexico, Peru are not involved in the series of the Summits involving Asean and its dialogue partners here.

Asean members involved in the TPP are Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam and non Asean are Australia and New Zealand.

The TPP is a free trade agreement that aims to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region.

Obama during the last TPP leaders meeting in Honolulu last year had hoped that by the middle of this year, substantive elements would be in place.

International Trade and Inustry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said he hoped that with Obama calling for the meeting, there would be momentum to the TPP.

“However, it will not be straightforward (negotiations) because we have to protect our own interest.

“It is not TPP at all costs because when we negotiate we look after our own interest,” he said on Saturday.

Officials said the negotiations were still complex because of the growing number of countries included in the TPP list.

“A lot of work is still being done to complete it fast is a challenge. Now the countries involved are 11 from just nine.

“ I dont think the leaders can take any decision in Phnom Penh because some of the participating countries are not here,” said an official.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is attending the TPP meeting.

The 15th round of negotiations among officials will be held in New Zealand from Dec 3 to Dec 12.

Long road to joining TPP negotiations,The Ntion,12.11.19
Govt says no commitment yet; banking sector fears loss of capital controlsIf members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement welcome Thailand's bid to join the exclusive trade pact, it would be just the first step for the government, which would have to seek approval from the Parliament to begin negotiations.
"The Thai government has to proceed according to Article 190 of the Constitution and other related processes before joining in the negotiations," said Foreign Affairs Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul.
A senior source at the Trade Negotiation Department added that the Cabinet's recent approval was only intended to announce Thailand's interest in joining the TPP negotiations, and did not commit the country to anything. In addition, the US would need to propose Thailand's interest to the TPP's other 10 members for a consensus agreement.----------

Obama arrives on whirlwind tour ,Bangkok Post,12.11.19
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra reaffirmed yesterday that Thailand and the United States will cooperate in talks on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and security issues.

----------

While expressing his appreciation for the government's firm commitment to democracy, rule of law and governance, Mr Obama said security and trade and investment were his two key priority issues in bilateral discussions with Thai leaders Sunday.

He said cooperation in trade and investment would centre on TPP negotiations.

----------

According to a joint press statement, President Obama welcomes Thailand's interest in the TPP negotiations, which will be subject to the necessary domestic legal procedures.

Article 190 of the constitution requires the government to hold public hearings before submitting any international agreement for parliamentary approval.
----------
Ms Yingluck said the government has agreed to begin negotiations with the US on the TPP agreement, but it would engage all stakeholders and submit it for parliamentary approval as required by the constitution.

Activists take TPP protest to airport,Bangkok Post,12.11.19

Activists from 14 non-governmental organisations and consumer advocacy groups gathered outside Don Mueang airport yesterday to protest against the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement (TPP).

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had said she would not give a commitment on the trade deal to US President Barack Obama, who arrived at Don Mueang yesterday for a whirlwind Bangkok visit.

Nimit Thiam-udom, director of the Aids Access Foundation, said any trade agreement should be made in the public interest rather than to favour business groups, particularly exporters who have been pressuring the prime minister to support the US deal.

The government should seek public comment and consider the deal carefully, not merely do the Americans' bidding.

Saree Aongsomwang, secretary-general of the Foundation for Consumers, said Thailand has to pay more than 100 billion baht each year to buy medicines for the public health system.

If the TPP is signed, Thailand will have to pay about 80 billion baht more to purchase the same medicines from foreign countries, Ms Saree said.

The trade agreement specifies that Thailand cannot bargain for the prices of pharmaceuticals, she added.

Samlee Jaidee, an academic at Chulalongkorn University's faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, said the TPP would also have adverse repercussions on the domestic pharmaceutical industry.

She said the agreement would allow major foreign companies to increase the prices of medicines, wield monopolistic control over the industry, and curb Thailand's bargaining power.

The Commerce Ministry's Department of Trade yesterday defended the government's position on the TPP.

It said the government would only express Thailand's intention to enter TPP negotiations, but would not commit to signing the agreement.

There are procedures involved in studying and approving any decision to join foreign trade deals, as required by Section 190 of the constitution, the department said.

Section 190 requires any international treaty that could affect national security or the economy to be endorsed by parliament.

The Commerce Ministry said it will study the benefits and consequences of the pact and gather public input before drawing up a framework for negotiations to present to the cabinet and to parliament for consideration.

PM stays coy on US-led trade pact,Bangkok Post,12.11.18
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she will not give a commitment to President Barack Obama today that Thailand will join the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement.
However, Ms Yingluck said she would ask for more details of the TPP _ which has been criticised by some US congressmen and foreign policy experts for not being transparent _ so it could be further studied. Local academics and consumer advocates have warned that entry into the TPP would hurt consumers and Thailand's economic competitiveness.

"A number of parties have expressed concern about Thailand's participation in the TPP," Ms Yingluck said.

"No agreement has been made. We are only expressing interest in studying the details and the pros and cons. ... There will be no talks with [US] President Barack Obama."

Suranand Vejjajiva, the PM's secretary-general, said no firm commitment or negotiations would be held between the two leaders today. "There will be neither a negotiation nor a signing [of the TPP] when the two leaders meet. The premier will only announce Thailand's intention to enter into the negotiations in a joint press statement," Mr Suranand said.----------

Thailand won't be bound to FTA, says Sek,Bangkok Post,12.11.17
（日本政府も似たような言い訳をしておりましたが・・・）

Thailand's planned negotiations in the United States-led multilateral free trade agreement (FTA) are just a process of thoroughly studying the pros and cons of the pact, a Foreign Ministry senior official said.

It does not mean Thailand will be bound to the pact, said Sek Wannamethee, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's American and Pacific Department, Friday.

He said the joint announcement set for tomorrow between Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and US President Barack Obama on the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) will only be the start of Thailand's process of studying the pros and cons of the pact.

If the pact is agreed, it will have to be brought into parliament under Section 190 of the constitution, Mr Sek said.

Section 190 requires any international treaty which could affect national security or the economy to be endorsed by parliament.

After the announcement, the Commerce Ministry will conduct a public hearing before parliament begins considering the pact, he said.

Mr Obama will arrive in Bangkok tomorrow afternoon.

He will be granted an audience with His Majesty the King before meeting Ms Yingluck at Government House.

Academics and activists expressed concern over the government's decision to enter the TPP negotiations without thoroughly studying its possible benefits and drawbacks.

Prapat Thepchatri, Thammasat University's Asean Studies director, said the TPP might decrease cooperation among 10-member Asean and make the grouping incongruous as four Asean member countries - Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei - have already joined the TPP.

He said he is concerned the TPP is an effort on the part of the US to block China economically, as Washington has not invited Beijing to join the pact.

"Thailand's plan to join the TPP could signal to China that the Thai government is siding with the US, which might make China unhappy," Mr Prapat said.

Mr Sek said Mr Obama is expected to ask Thailand about China's role in the region.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will make a two-day trip to Thailand on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mr Sek insisted Thailand's TPP negotiations would not harm Asean cooperation, as member nations have previously joined together in bigger frameworks such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).

TPP will only be a driving force for economic cooperation, he said.

Surachart Bamrungsuk, a political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, said Southeast Asia has become a contentious ground as the world's two superpowers compete for influence in the region.

Mr Obama's visit obviously highlights the US's intention to return to the region, the lecturer said.

That the president's first overseas trip since his re-election on Nov 6 is to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia sends a clear signal, Mr Surachart said.

He urged Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to carefully consider whether to join the PTT or to concentrate on the Asean bloc as it moves closer to the implementation of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.
He suggested that Asean should remain Thailand's primary focus in terms of international partnerships.

BoT: Inflow control in danger of ebbing under TPP,Bangkok Post,12.11.16

The Bank of Thailand should retain the right to implement measures that manoeuvre foreign capital inflows in any negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), says governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul.

He said the economy has recorded a fairer balance between capital inflows and outflows this year, and along with declining trade gains these have reduced the pressure on the baht's appreciation.

US President Barack Obama is expected to push for Thailand to enter negotiations for the TPP during his visit here.

Mr Prasarn said the government has not consulted with the central bank on the TPP, and the central bank has no information on what issues would be included in a negotiation.

But past negotiations of bilateral trade pacts between the US and Thailand along with other regional economies have shown a free capital account is on the US wish list.

"The US allows its capital to flow freely, but it's important for a small economy such as Thailand to retain that tool to use when necessary," said Mr Prasarn.

He said the economy is expected to record US$5-6 billion in net gains in capital through trade, services and investment this year compared with $1.2 billion last year and $30 billion in 2010.

Capital flows recorded a net of $10 billion in the first half - $2 billion in equities and $8 billion in the bond market.

Declining export growth will result in a balanced current account this year.

Mr Prasarn said the central bank delayed plans to switch its monetary policy target to headline inflation from core inflation in its Finance Ministry proposal this year.

Headline inflation could improve public understanding of its decisions on interest rates, as it includes energy and food prices, yet existing subsidies could mislead the public, he said.

Thai banks fret about competition within TPP,Bangkok Post,12.11.16

Thailand's negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), which could involve opening up the financial service sector, has rattled Thai banks worried about their competitiveness relative to those in member countries, says Prasarn Trairatvorakul, the governor of the Bank of Thailand.

The central bank envisions a gradual opening up of the banking sector to foreign investors to strengthen the financial sector. Local banks are ready to comply with Basel III, a new international capital accord requiring existing minimum capital of 15%, up from 8.5% now, he said.

Mr Prasarn said Asean countries set a target for banking sector liberalisation by 2020, which is five years later than its framework for integration of trade and investment.

All Asean countries have experienced banks based in other Asean countries opening full branches locally, except for Brunei and Myanmar, though some banks have opened representative offices.Asean central banks are currently negotiating the draft criteria for qualified banks to operate in other countries. Local banks are expected to be ready to operate once liberalisation takes place, said Mr Prasarn.

A key difference between the TPP and the AEC is that members of the AEC have similar levels of development and the agreement is seen as more flexible than the TPP, said Mr Prasarn.

"Thai banks are strong enough to operate in the domestic market in which foreign investors have a greater presence. But they are still at a disadvantage in terms of capital, notably compared with the US, in expanding abroad," said Mr Prasarn.

He said the integration of the Asean banking sector in 2020 would lead to a closer linkage of financial flows among Asean countries, which should help balance the country's capital inflows and outflows and promote the progress of the local capital market.

KTB welcomes TPP talks, ties with US,Bangkok Post,12.11.15
Amid concerns over whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will benefit Thailand or not, state-owned Krung Thai Bank (KTB) is looking forward to greater business opportunities with American banks.
US President Barack Obama will make an official visit to Thailand on Sunday, and bilateral trade negotiations are expected.
Some economists have warned that Thailand faces a negative impact from the planned TPP. But KTB's new leadership believes the pact will help the bank when it begins playing a more aggressive role in global finance.
Newly appointed president Vorapak Tanyawong, who has more than 20 years of international banking experience, said KTB and another large local bank have been approached by US banks for business cooperation in the areas of cash management, treasury and electronic banking service.
The business dealings were started under KTB's former president Apisak Tantivorawong.
The strong countrywide networks of KTB and the other local bank are key factors attracting foreign banks for partnership.
The second-ranked KTB, 55%-owned by the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund, has 1,060 branches across the country.
"Such business cooperation with foreign banks will help strengthen KTB's fee-based income," said Mr Vorapak. "Also, the TPP would provide greater business opportunities for several local banks."
The foreign banks basically have only one branch in Thailand each under their concentration in wholesale banking, he said.
Mr Vorapak's experience in foreign financial institutions includes a stint as country manager for Bank of America (Thailand).
Under his four-year business plan, he aims to strengthen the bank's fee-based income because its revenue is falling behind that of the other big players (Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Kasikornbank).
KTB's non-interest income accounted for 29% of net operating income in the first nine months of the year.
In addition, Mr Vorapak said border trade is another business area set to expand in preparation for the upcoming Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
KTB plans to focus on the Indochina market except Vietnam. The bank will open a representative office in Myanmar within a year after recently receiving approval from authorities.
"Strong provincial branches will help facilitate the bank's expansion in pursuit of border trade opportunities," said Mr Vorapak.

TPP poses challenges to Thailand's financial sector: BOT,The Nation,12.11.15
Though not opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Bank of Thailand raised concerns on the influence of such agreement on Thailand's investment and capital flows. In a research written by Harit Rodprasert, a senior economist, the author expressec concerns in two main areas.
First, the policy space to keep capital flows in control. He noted that TPP tends to limit member countries’ ability in keeping capital flows at the level accommodating economic and financial stablity. Capital flows offer new options for investment, saving and fund mobilisation. In the form of foreign direct investment, the flows could lead to transfer of technology and greater competitiveness. Yet, they could generate risks to the financial sector, if this leads to foreign exchange volatility. The influx could also cause bubble in the property market. Massive outflows, in contrast, could pose problems in a country’s balance of payments and liquidity.
"The agreement under the TPP framework would benefit the general public only when investor protection and policy space is balanced," he said.
The TPP is a key part of US President Barack Obama’s economic strategy and the government’s move to join the group coincides with next week’s visit by Obama. Thailand has already signed free-trade agreements with other members of the bloc, except the US and Canada. Original signatories to the group are Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand while negotiating members include Australia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Other negotiating members are Canada, Mexico, Peru and the US.
Second, Harit was concerned if Thailand and other member countries would be pressured to open up their financial sectors up on the US requests.
He noted that liberalisation in developing countries would enhance efficiency of the financial sector, but policy makers must also take into account the competitiveness of local players. The timing of the liberalisation is crucial, to ensure preparation among local players. Plus, allowing cross-border transactions without the presence of physical branches could also compromise the supervision and consumer protection.
"The financial liberalisation must be carried out gradually, taking into account benefits to consumers and readiness of financial institutions. Local players need time to adjust and increase competitiveness, for sustainable development," he said.

Balancing ties with two superpowers,The Nation,12.11.15
The government will need a keen sense of proportion this month when handling the flood of foreign missions - both arriving here and trips outside the country - to keep its balanced position in a world of rivalry.
At a special Cabinet meeting on Monday, before Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra departed to the United Kingdom, a lot of decisions were made that could be deemed to favour the United States amid preparations for an official visit by President Barack Obama on Sunday and Monday.
Cabinet endorsed the content of joint statements Yingluck will make with Obama during the visit on two matters. They will express readiness to join talks for the Washington-initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional free-trade scheme, and to re-activate meetings of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Joint Council (TIFA JC), a bilateral free-trade set-up.
Free-trade initiatives with the US have been sensitive, and there have been longstanding protests by local civil groups. Negotiations on a free-trade agreement with the US failed years ago due to strong opposition over various items proposed for inclusion in the pact.
Shortly after Monday's Cabinet meeting, civic groups under the umbrella of FTA Watch raised concern about the government's position on the free-trade initiative with the US. They say the US proposed free-trade agreement, according to their studies, could harm local bio-diversity and limit access to patented drugs.
The TPP, which the US is negotiating with eight countries, currently requires partners to patent bio-varieties for American benefit, according to Chakchai Chomthongdee of FTA Watch. "US patented drugs are very expensive - beyond what local patients can afford," he said.
Strategically, Chakchai said, the US would use TPP to expand trade and political influence over Asian countries against China.
President Obama said during his re-election campaign that the TPP was "creating a trade bloc with other Asian countries to put pressure on China to play by our rules".
On the security front, which also has strategic implications for the region, the Cabinet agreed to join a Washington-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative - (PSI) to cope with weapon of mass destruction.
The Defence Ministry also did it part with a 2012 Joint Vision Statement for the Thai-US Defence Alliance when Defence Secretary Leon Panetta arrives here on tomorrow. The Cabinet endorsed this, as proposed by the ministry.
The vision statement reaffirms the strategic military alliance between Thailand and the US for security and stability in Southeast Asia. Of course, it's no secret that Thailand and the US are long-time allies. And it's hardly strange for this country to have economic, political and military cooperation.
Unfortunately, the US is not the sole superpower in the world anymore. Giant neighbour China is emerging as a new powerhouse in the region, perhaps in coming years. The 21st century belongs to China. No country on earth could turn its back to China.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will visit Thailand on Tuesday and Wednesday next week to reaffirm Beijing's strategic interest in the country and the region.
Unlike the US, Beijing loves to show its "soft power". Premier Wen will highlight economic, social and cultural cooperation with Thailand, rather than political and military presence.
As the host country, Thailand should be well aware of the fact that Washington and Beijing are looking at and competing with each other in all sectors. China is really worried about the US's "return" to the Asia Pacific.
But it's not easy for a country like Thailand having to fine tune and balance relations with two superpowers. An easy way to handle this situation is to give equal treatment to both of them.
And that's exactly what Premier Wen, although set to step down early next year, will expect - ie. nothing less than what Obama gets when he is in Bangkok.
　

US-Mexico trade talks could address labor, energy,Reuters,12.11.14

* Envoy says TPP talks 'back door' way to upgrade NAFTA

* Sees 'window of opportunity' for U.S. immigration reform

* Says TPP pact will bind together 'thinking axis'

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The United States and Mexico could soon tackle controversial areas, such as energy policy and cross-border movement of workers, not included in the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico's ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday.

"There were many things that were left off the table because ... they were politically undoable at the time," Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said at the Inter-American Dialogue, a foreign policy think tank.

But Mexico and Canada's entry into U.S.-led talks on a regional free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific gives the three NAFTA partners an opportunity to revisit the landmark trade deal.

The United States pushed in the NAFTA talks for reforms to open up Mexico's energy sector "and we said 'no can do,'" Sarukhan said.

Similarly, Mexico wanted changes to make easier for workers to cross the border to take jobs in the United States and "the U.S. said 'no can do,'" he said.

Now Mexico's incoming government under President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto is expected to send a wide-ranging energy reform bill to Congress in the first half of next year.

And a "window of opportunity" exists for the United States to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2013-2014 following President Barack Obama's re-election, Sarukhan said.

In December, Mexico and Canada will join the United States and eight other countries in talks on the free trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei agreed this year to let Mexico and Canada into the negotiations, which Sarukhan said could reach a final deal by late 2013.

Sarukhan said NAFTA had helped the United States, Canada and Mexico become more competitive internationally, but acknowledged it was unpopular in parts of the United States where many workers believe it shipped jobs to Mexico.

"If we were to renegotiate NAFTA, reopen it, it would be like throwing a spanner in the works," Sarukhan said. "TPP allows us to upgrade NAFTA through the back door."

A TPP deal would further enhance North American regional integration, boosting exports for all three countries in markets around the world, he said.

There are also geopolitical aspects to the TPP, at a time when countries in the Western Hemisphere are divided over whether to forge deeper ties with the United States or try to move further away, Sarukhan said.

"The beauty about TPP is that it binds what I would say (is) ... the 'thinking axis' of the hemisphere," Sarukhan said, referring to countries such as the United States, Mexico, Canada, Peru and Chile that he said have embraced free trade.

タイ　閣議がTPP交渉参加を承認　とりわけ金融部門に悪影響

TPP poses challenges to Thailand's financial sector: BOT,The Nation,12.11.14
Though not opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Bank of Thailand raised concerns on the influence of such agreement on Thailand's investment and capital flows. In a research written by Harit Rodprasert, a senior economist, the author expressec concerns in two main areas.
First, the policy space to keep capital flows in control. He noted that TPP tends to limit member countries’ ability in keeping capital flows at the level accommodating economic and financial stablity. Capital flows offer new options for investment, saving and fund mobilisation. In the form of foreign direct investment, the flows could lead to transfer of technology and greater competitiveness. Yet, they could generate risks to the financial sector, if this leads to foreign exchange volatility. The influx could also cause bubble in the property market. Massive outflows, in contrast, could pose problems in a country’s balance of payments and liquidity.
"The agreement under the TPP framework would benefit the general public only when investor protection and policy space is balanced," he said.
The TPP is a key part of US President Barack Obama’s economic strategy and the government’s move to join the group coincides with next week’s visit by Obama. Thailand has already signed free-trade agreements with other members of the bloc, except the US and Canada. Original signatories to the group are Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand while negotiating members include Australia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Other negotiating members are Canada, Mexico, Peru and the US.
Second, Harit was concerned if Thailand and other member countries would be pressured to open up their financial sectors up on the US requests.
He noted that liberalisation in developing countries would enhance efficiency of the financial sector, but policy makers must also take into account the competitiveness of local players. The timing of the liberalisation is crucial, to ensure preparation among local players. Plus, allowing cross-border transactions without the presence of physical branches could also compromise the supervision and consumer protection.
"The financial liberalisation must be carried out gradually, taking into account benefits to consumers and readiness of financial institutions. Local players need time to adjust and increase competitiveness, for sustainable development," he said.
Scholar urges TPP member plan rethink,Bangkok Post,12.11.14
The government should think twice before pressing ahead with its plan to seek membership of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a leading academic warned yesterday.
The cabinet on Monday approved a proposal for the government to hold negotiations with the US over the possibility that Thailand might become a new member of the TPP.
The negotiations are expected to be held during the two-day official visit by the US President Barack Obama on Saturday and Sunday.
One major concern is that Thailand's service sector is not ready to become a part of the TPP as it is not competitive enough, said Aat Pisanwanich, dean of the School of Economics at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Financial institutions in particular would be adversely affected by free trade in the service sector under the TPP. The technology sector also lacks the ability to compete in this free trade setting, said Mr Aat.
The TPP is a significantly expanded version of the 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, which works to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region.
The TPP now has 11 members, namely Brunei, Chile, Singapore, New Zealand, the US, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico and Canada.
It would, however, not be easy for Thailand to gain TPP membership as all member nations would have to unanimously approve Thailand's request, said a source at the Finance Ministry.
Piramol Charoenpao, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said Thailand would benefit from joining the TPP. As a member, the country would have to sharpen its competitive edge against other countries and improve government procurement standards, she said.
Fierce competition would be unavoidable and that would make Thailand stronger, she added.
During Mr Obama's visit, the government will hold a press conference to formally affirm its commitment to seek membership of the TPP, said a Commerce Ministry source.

Thailand to join TPP talks,Bangkok Post,12.11.13

Thailand has agreed to join negotiations in a United States-led free trade agreement (FTA) in a move which will be formally announced during President Barack Obama's visit here on Sunday./
Thailand's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be a highlight of the visit by the US president amid concern by activists over the consequences of the far-reaching free trade pact.
The TPP is a proposed regional FTA being negotiated by the US and several Asia-Pacific nations, including Australia, Canada, Vietnam, Mexico and six other countries.
The agreement is aimed at liberalising trade in nearly all goods and services and includes commitments beyond those currently established in the World Trade Organisation.
The cabinet yesterday agreed to the proposal tabled by the Commerce Ministry to have Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announce the pact in a joint press statement with Mr Obama, the government said on its website.
The agreement would lead to fewer tariffs on Thai exports to the US and would eliminate Thailand's reliance on the America's Generalised System of Preferences.
The decision was attacked by FTA Watch, a non-governmental organisation which has monitored the free trade deal.
The prime minister should be considering this deal thoroughly instead of thinking only about having something to announce with the US leader, FTA Watch said.
The TPP negotiations were revitalised by the US in 2010. The talks will be concluded next year.
With the exclusion of China, the move is seen by some as an attempt to counter the rising economic clout of Beijing and to assert more American influence on Asia.
Washington has boasted the TPP will further liberalise trade among its members.
But Jacquechai Chomthongdi, a FTA Watch coordinator, warned of its negative impacts on Thailand if the country joins the negotiations.
Thailand will struggle to gain access to affordable medicines under the pact as it gives drug manufacturers longer patent protection compared to international standards, he said.
The US is pushing for more liberalisation of the service and investment sectors through the pact, he added.
The agreement is part of a US tactic to create a trade bloc with other Asian countries to put pressure on China to play by America's rules, he said.
Mr Obama's visit marks 180 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Fresh from his presidential election victory, Mr Obama will visit Thailand and Myanmar on his way to the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh.
Thai sources said the US has requested Thai security officers reinforce snipers for security during the visit.
Snipers from the Thai police special force Arintarat have been asked to help with security, the sources said.
The US also requested that Phitsanulok Road, next to Government House, be closed during Sunday's meeting, the sources said.
American officials also asked Thai officers to monitor the high buildings of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives headquarters, Office of the Civil Service Commission and Phranakhon Rajabhat University, which are near the area.
Security preparations for Mr Obama's visit come under the responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, government spokesman Thossaporn Sereerak said.
The Secretariat of the Prime Minister yesterday allowed about 30 US officials from the White House, the US embassy and the president's security team to survey Government House.
They inspected and photographed the buildings to be used in the reception and presidential meeting.
　

Treaty Tolls Death Knell for Mexican Countryside,IPS,10.23
‎　TPPによる植物検疫措置の柔軟化でメキシコ農業の最後の防壁が倒壊
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, which Mexico is to join in December, are threatening to eliminate the last defences of the country’s agricultural sector.
Farmers in the United States, one of the future partners in the treaty, have asked their government to negotiate flexibilisation of the phytosanitary measures applied by Mexico, which are the final barrier against free entrance of agricultural products that compete against local crops.
“Mexico is about to enter unfamiliar negotiations,” Timothy Wise, director of the Research and Policy Programme at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University near Boston, Massachusetts, told IPS. “I think the diagnosis is unfavourable for this country. The purpose of this treaty is to defend Washington’s agenda.”
“It is only seeking further trade liberalisation,” the expert said.
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement went into effect in 2006 with four original members: Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2007, negotiations got under way for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a significantly expanded version of the treaty. In 2008, Australia, Peru, the United States and Vietnam joined the negotiations, and Malaysia joined in 2010.
In June 2012 Canada and Mexico became part of the negotiations. Japan has also expressed an interest, but is only an observer, and has not yet formally entered the negotiations.
There have been 14 rounds of talks on the TPP, the latest in the United States in September. The next round will be held in December in New Zealand, which Mexico will join. This step is anxiously awaited by the U.S. agricultural sector, which looks forward to a total opening of the Mexican market.
Mexico’s agricultural trade became wide open to Canada and the U.S. when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into force in 1994. However, there were some important exceptions to unrestricted entry of goods, and some non-tariff barriers were established, such as phytosanitary measures.
Mexico’s average tariff for agricultural products from outside NAFTA is 21.5 percent. But imports of coffee and poultry products are completely banned, and different products are excluded from other trade agreements with countries or blocs.
Potatoes are an especially protected crop; Mexico only allows entry of potato products from the U.S. and Canada to designated border areas. This crop was left out of the agreement because of the lack of competitiveness in production between the three countries.
At first Mexico applied a tariff of 272 percent on potato imports from the United States, until 2002, when the tax was replaced by phytosanitary barriers to control plant diseases, like nematodes.
In March 2002, Mexico City and Washington signed a market access agreement that is still in effect, allowing imports of fresh U.S. potatoes to a 26-km wide border zone in Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, the five states on the border with the United States.
U.S. producers exported 39 million dollars worth of potatoes to Mexico last year.
Potato farmers are accusing the government of using them as a bargaining chip for acceptance in the TPP. Under U.S. pressure, Mexico might allow potato imports throughout the country in return for joining the negotiations in New Zealand.
“No one has consulted us, unlike in negotiations for other treaties,” Cecilia Ríos, general manager of the National Confederation of Potato Producers (CONPAPA), told IPS. “Ever since 2008, the United States has been pressing for total access. But as they did not comply with phytosanitary protocols, they were not allowed in.”
CONPAPA, founded in 2002, brings together producers, sellers, researchers and government delegates.
Complete opening of the market would put at risk the livelihoods of 8,700 potato farmers and a crop worth 900 million dollars covering 55,000 hectares, CONPAPA says. In addition, potato diseases could spread to other crops like tomatoes, eggplants, tobacco and peppers.
In contrast to what happened in Mexico, the government of President Barack Obama did hold public consultations on the TPP in the United States.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced Mexico’s plans for incorporation to the agreement on Dec. 7, 2011. Interested parties had until Sept. 4 to comment, and 17 days later a hearing was held in Washington, D.C. The U.S. National Potato Council was one of the respondents.
“Many of the obstacles raised by Mexico to justify their failure to honour commitments in the 2003 agreement have been phytosanitary in nature, are not based on sound science, and do not justify trade restrictions,” said John Keeling, the Potato Council’s executive vice president, in a letter to the USTR dated Aug. 17.
“A lack of progress on the potato issue would call into question Mexico’s commitment to be a responsible partner in the TPP agreement,” Keeling said.
Other agricultural sectors have also made demands. For instance, the Northwest Horticultural Council (NHC) has asked for phytosanitary permission to export fresh peaches and apricots under a protocol system, without the need for Mexican inspectors to oversee the programme.
NHC members argue that the protocol they propose to control the oriental fruit moth (Grapholita molesta) is used for peaches exported to Mexico and peaches and apricots sent to Canada, according to an Aug. 28 letter to the USTR signed by Mark Powers, the NHC vice president.
“Oriental fruit moth has never been detected in stone fruit shipments to Canada, or in apricots to Mexico,” he said.
Mexico’s agricultural exports were worth 7.82 billion dollars between January and August, while imports were 7.74 billion dollars over the same period, according to the Mexican central bank.
“The United Status may be concerned about losing something, but all Mexico can do is lose. With another strategy, Mexico could open up spaces for government policies, but that is not going to happen,” said Wise, who has studied the situation in the Mexican countryside for years.
“This is a non-negotiable issue, it is about more than trade. We are going to lobby Congress to explain the problems and the situation,” said Ríos.
The food health and safety service attached to the Agriculture Ministry has records of over 1,000 shipments of U.S. potatoes refused entry because they were contaminated with quarantine pests – organisms capable of causing economic or environmental harm – that have not been previously detected in Mexico.
CONPAPA has sponsored a study on the impact of the potato trade in the border zone, and will publish its results in the coming weeks.
The NHC has requested that the USTR and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service “work with the Mexican government to make the regulatory change” that will allow fruit access.
　

Trade talks aim to expand United States’ Asia presence, with China on the horizon,The Washington Post,12.9.21
As the U.S. hammers on China’s front door with demands to further open up its economy, Obama administration officials are negotiating a potential back alley to the same end — a trade agreement with other Asian nations they hope will challenge China to change some of its core economic policies.
China is not party to the ¬Trans-Pacific Partnership talks that the United States is pursuing with 10 other nations. But the proposed treaty has become a central part of the administration’s “pivot” toward Asia and is meant to address issues, such as the role of state-owned enterprises, that figure in the central disputes between the United States and China.
The ongoing talks include countries like Vietnam and Malaysia that are direct competitors with China for international investment, and they could give these countries freer access to U.S. markets and make them more attractive to multinational businesses as foreign investment in China has ebbed.
If U.S. ambitions are met, the pact will unite large portions of Asia, North America and South America in a trading bloc of lowered tariffs and common rules — a tidal pull that the Chinese could find hard to resist.
“This really embeds us in the fastest-growing region of the world and gives us a leadership role in shaping the rules of the game for that region,” said Mike Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economics. “It is creating a platform for the Asia-Pacific that more and more countries will want to be part of.”
After 14 rounds of talks, most recently at Virginia’s Lansdowne Resort, negotiators are aiming to complete the agreement next year among the 11 countries currently involved. Most of them — including Australia, Singapore, Chile and Peru, with Mexico and Canada about to join — already have trade agreements with the United States, which could limit the short-term effect of an additional regional pact.
But the breadth of the agreement, and the potential for its membership to expand, makes it perhaps the central trade discussion underway in the world as global trade talks have ground to a halt. By delving into issues that World Trade Organization rules don’t cover — the proper place of state-owned enterprises, for instance, or questions of electronic commerce — U.S. officials and others hope it will frame a new stage in trade relations for those who join.
After China joined the WTO, Beijing viewed its commitments “as a ceiling” that did not have to be exceeded, said Ted Dean, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. “We want them to treat it as a floor. If at the margin Vietnam looks better, Malaysia looks better [because of the Trans-Pacific Partnership] . . .that has an impact.”
China already faces increasing impatience among its major trading partners to loosen control over the state-dominated economy, allow more competition, give freer rein to foreign investors and rely less on exports. Top Communist Party figures have often said that is their intent, and Obama administration officials in recent months have said the country is making strides on important issues, such as state control of the financial system.
But progress on many fronts has been slow, and American public opinion is ambivalent about whether freer trade is a good idea. A March Pew Research Center poll found that 48 percent of those questioned supported free-trade agreements, with 41 percent opposed. But other surveys found large majorities who felt China’s economic rise had damaged U.S. prospects.
The issue has figured in the U.S. presidential campaign, with President Obama saying that Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s business deals sent American jobs overseas, and Romney saying that Obama has not been tough enough with China. Romney has also endorsed the treaty, calling it a “dramatic geopolitical and economic bulwark against China.”
Finishing the treaty — not to mention winning congressional approval — will be no easy task.
The trade talks have touched off vigorous opposition from a broad range of interest groups and companies and have drawn protests from members of Congress. Negotiators have been criticized for not revealing more of the proposed treaty to the public.
There are disputes brewing over regulation of Internet commerce — groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that the treaty may go beyond what’s been settled under U.S. law — and pharmaceutical patents and pricing. As the Lansdowne talks proceeded, Maine state representative Sharon Treat monitored them from the resort’s lobby, concerned that the ¬Trans-Pacific Partnership might prevent state governments from negotiating better rates from drug and biotech companies.
There are still deep divisions among the countries involved, and U.S. domestic interests may clash as well. The Sweetener Users Association, a coalition of major food and beverage companies, hopes the trade negotiations lead to the elimination of import restrictions that protect U.S. sugar producers. The country’s small footwear industry opposes lowering tariffs on imported shoes, a levy that shoe importers want lifted.
The issue prompted U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to visit the New Balance shoe plant in Norridgewock, Maine, last week, where executives said the tariffs protect the company’s 1,350 shoe-making jobs.
“A TPP with Vietnam imperils our ability to keep making footwear in this country,” said company spokesman Matt LeBretton. “People are tripping over themselves to get to Vietnam. There is no need to give them an additional advantage.”
But given the stakes — with administration officials calling it a “gold standard” agreement integral to their Asia policy — domestic trade-offs may well be required.
Why expect Vietnam to start dismantling stated-owned enterprises or ask New Zealand to change its drug pricing if the United States restricts its sugar imports or keeps a tax on imported sneakers? U.S. officials say they are determined to bring the trade deal to completion and say that the disputes emerging now are a sign that the talks have reached bedrock.
“We are going to have to solve a lot of issues to bring this over the finish line, but there is unanimous consensus to keep the momentum,” said Demetrios Marantis, deputy U.S. trade representative. “We are that advanced, we are getting to the hard stuff.”

Trans-Pacific Trade Talks Grind On,IPS,12.9.11
The 14th round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the proposal for a massive free-trade area spearheaded by the United States, got underway here over the weekend.
The talks are slated to last through the week, with another round scheduled before the end of this year.
But while President Barack Obama initially hoped the negotiations would finish before the November U.S. presidential elections, an update report released on Sunday reported only “encouraging headway”.
In a reference that is sure to frustrate many observers – activists and government officials alike – the report, by trade ministers from each of the nine TPP countries, notes “the active consultations with our stakeholders that we have conducted domestically to obtain input as we further developed our negotiating positions”. According to almost universal observation, the TPP negotiations continue under unusually tight secrecy.
“(M)eetings, extensive preparatory work … have significantly narrowed the gaps between us in a wide range of areas,” the report states, warning that negotiators are “continuing work on other issues where progress has been slower.”
Indeed, the top U.S. trade official, Trade Representative Ron Kirk, now says that the talks could drag on through much of next year. Kirk is also warning that some of the most contentious decisions needed for the talks to progress remain outstanding, and will likely only be taken up next year.
Both President Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, have made increasing U.S. exports central components in their election campaigns, both of which have focused almost exclusively on the state of the U.S. economy, which continues to stutter.
As currently envisaged, the TPP would include at least nine countries – Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam – with Canada and Mexico expected to be formally included on that list later this year.
Japan, meanwhile, remains a potentially lucrative holdout. While the Japanese government has expressed interest in joining the talks, a chaotic political situation at home, coupled with some staunch opposition to joining the TPP, has led the Japanese to bow out of the current talks.
The start of this round of TPP negotiations coincided with the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, this year held in Vladivostok, Russia. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the TPP “central to America’s economic vision in Asia”.
That same day, following a meeting with Clinton, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that, with multiple outstanding issues remaining to be resolved, both the United States and Malaysia were now looking to wrap up talks on the TPP only by the end of 2013.
The 14th round is also the first negotiations to take place following the end-August meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at which the representatives gathered announced plans to move forward with a China-led Asia-only free-trade area.
While the United States says it hopes China would eventually join the TPP, Beijing is not currently part of the talks. The Asia-only discussions, meanwhile, do not look set to include Washington, but are reportedly actively wooing Japan.
While Trade Representative Kirk has noted that the United States does not “begrudge” the movement towards an Asia-only trade agreement, he has indicated optimism that the TPP talks would conclude before the Asia-only framework gets off the ground – and warns that significant progress needs to be made during the current round of discussions.
Stifling secrecy
Ultimately, what fires both optimism and fierce criticism regarding the TPP is its open-ended nature, with U.S. officials suggesting that new countries could continue to be added to the agreement’s framework down the road.
Already, the countries under the TPP would encompass around a third of international economic productivity, and the possibility of a further expansion leads many critics to warn that the negative aspects of other U.S.-led free-trade agreements – on labour rights, on the environment, on small-scale business and agriculture – could be far more widespread under any eventual TPP agreement.
Advocates are warning that the United States is attempting to impose overly strict interpretations of intellectual property rights and copyright on the rest of the bloc, with a host of incumbent negative impacts on issues from generic medicines to the Internet’s openness. Other provisions would, in certain instances, preference a corporation over a country’s own laws.
The most significant issue, however, supersedes each of these others: the secrecy with which the TPP negotiations have taken place throughout the talks process. Thus, while inklings of the countries’ positions on the varying issues have come to light through brief public statements and leaked documents, the details of how the talks are progressing are known only to the negotiators and the corporations that have been given access to the draft documents.
According to activists, of the 600 advisors that the U.S. negotiators have used surrounding the talks, 84 percent have been corporate interests.
Indeed, not only has there been an ongoing lack of direct civil-society involvement in the TPP process, but progress in the negotiations has been kept secret from even the U.S. Congress. With the start of the 14th round of talks this weekend, a bipartisan letter was sent from Congress to Trade Representative Kirk, insisting “in the strongest terms possible” that Kirk’s office publicise details on what is being discussed, specifically with regards to intellectual property rights.
Members of Congress have sent similar letters to Kirk in recent months, calling for greater openness in the TPP discussions as well as demanding to be allowed access to the negotiations. At least once, such requests have been denied, on the rationale that the issues at stake are too sensitive and complex.
On Sunday, Kirk’s office held a meeting between stakeholders and negotiators – only the second such session in the 14 rounds of talks. According to official figures, participation levels jumped by nearly 50 percent over the previous such session, indicating extremely high interest in the proceedings.
In the event, some 450 registered stakeholders had just three hours in which to interact with negotiators.
“Even when the USTR provides a forum for stakeholder presentations and tables, no negotiator is really willing to engage in a real dialogue with us,” Reshmi Rangnath, with Public Knowledge, a watchdog group, told IPS following the interaction.
“Because the presentations and tables were simultaneous, effectively participating in both was very difficult. It left me wondering how negotiators could listen to relevant presentations and also discuss these issues with those who had set up tables. So, until the process becomes more open, we have no way to really gauge how our input is being received.”

Malaysia Health Minister Says TPP Is No Good,WebProNews,12.8.9
TPP is a major cause of concern among those in the tech community. Its expansion of copyright and forcing U.S. copyright law onto other countries is troubling to say the least. It seems that some countries involved in the TPP negotiations are beginning to come to their senses. Malaysia is the latest to say no to the treaty.
Malaysia Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai recently spoke out against TPP and its patent extensions on medicine. He feels that the U.S. is putting other countries’ citizens at risk by making them adopt stricter patent laws. Here’s his statement:
“We are against the patent extension. According to the agreement, if a medicine is launched in the US, and then three years later it is launched in Malaysia, the patent would start from when it is launched here and not when it was launched earlier in the US. This is not fair.”
According to Bilaterals, the Malaysia’s current patent on medicines last for 20 years. TPP would increase that to 10 more years. During that time, generic drug companies would not be able to make affordable drugs for those who need them most.
Liow also slammed TPP because it allows corporations to sue countries over perceived wrongs. In draft versions of the treaty that have been leaked, there are provisions that allow corporations to sue countries that don’t prove to be good investments.
Regardless of the reasons, countries are beginning to see that TPP does nothing for them. It’s all about empowering the U.S. in trade across the South Pacific.
We already spoke in length about how TPP is hoping to restrict fair use across all the countries involved in TPP. Not only would it hamper creativity in these countries, it would also hamper their economic growth. The same could be said for the medical patent rules.
Trade agreements should benefit all of the countries who are involved in the process. Everything we’ve seen about TPP so far indicates that it is only benefitting the U.S. The USTR has an obligation to make sure the U.S. is profitable in its trading, but restricting the economic development of other countries isn’t the way to go.
　

Japan’s Free-Trade Nemesis Built on Part-Time Farmers Empire,Bloomberg,12.8.3
Japan’s government wants it. Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) backs it. Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) says they need it to compete. Yet, whether Japan joins the biggest attempt at a global free-trade pact may hinge on part-time rice farmers like Tadashi Hirose. And he doesn’t much like it. ----------
　

TPP Trade Talks Likely To Conclude By October 2013, Says Academician,Bernama(マレーシア国営通信）,12.7.13
TPP交渉、来年10月に妥結の予想　香港大学教授　マレーシアは主張を貫き、利益がなければ参加すべきでない　
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations are expected to conclude in October next year, almost a year behind the initial deadline of end-2012, an academician said today.
Lim Chin Leng, a professor of law and chair for East Asian International Economic Law Programme at the University of Hong Kong, said given the impending US' presidential election and the entry of new members into TPP, the talks could only end next year.
Canada and Mexico are the latest members in TPP talks. He was asked on the likely of when the negotiation will be concluded following a talk here today on the "The Impact of TPP and Hong Kong's Accession to the Asean China Free Trade Agreement (FTA)," organised by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation.
Lim said Malaysia would also not be involved in the TPP talks if there were no benefits to the country, and added that Malaysia should not pull back its position as it would lose the preferential access to the US market.
"If it's not in our interest to be in...it doesn't mean that we'll necessarily sign on.
"The deal's not done till it's done and it's not over until we sign."
TPP is a multilateral FTA that aims to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region.
Among the countries that have joined the negotiations are Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, and Peru

We'll lose under trade deal, says Groser... but we'll win too,The New Zealand Herald,12.7.7
Trade Negotiations Minister Tim Groser admits that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal involves some loss of sovereignty for New Zealand - but says that is normal for trade agreements.
"Of course trade agreements involve concessions over the sovereign rights of countries to do things," he told the Weekend Herald. " That's the point of international law."
New Zealand's problem had been the "excess sovereignty" other countries had exerted over it, such as introducing export subsidies, when it tried to diversify its markets away from Europe.
"Because we have operated in agriculture, in particular, where there were such inadequate legal frameworks internationally, people have just screwed us.
"We needed to control their sovereign right to do whatever suited their fancy. The whole point of international law is to put limits around countries' sovereignty on the basis of negotiated understandings."
He said increased domestic wealth generated by free trade agreements meant New Zealand would be less reliant on foreign investment.
But the people who opposed foreign investment also opposed free trade agreements.
Concerns have been mounting over part of the deal which gives foreign investors power over countries.
A group of 135 legislators from all 50 US states this week wrote to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk saying an investor-state dispute settlement procedure had no place in the TPP.
It would give foreign investors the right to sue governments and allow a "second bite" if investors did not like domestic court judgments.
This could have a "chilling effect" on policy-making deliberations.
The lawmakers said it would interfere with their capacity to enact and enforce rules to protect public health, safety and welfare.
Investor-state disputes procedures are a large part of Greens co-leader Russel Norman's objection to the trade deal.
"The whole idea of the agreement is to restrict the ability of Governments to regulate," he said.
He believed the TPP would give foreign investors greater rights than domestic investors and would limit the Government's ability to regulate to protect the environment.
If the Government moved to regulate or legislate to clean up water pollution, foreign investors in the dairy sector (Shanghai Pengxin, for example) could argue they were being indirectly adversely affected.
Dr Norman said the economic effects of free trade agreements were greatly exaggerated and believed the increase in dairy exports to China since the 2008 free trade agreement stemmed from the scandal there over melamine contamination of infant formula.
Mr Groser said the investor-state disputes procedures protected New Zealand's investments overseas and would give confidence to foreign investors "that the New Zealand Government is not going to do something completely dodgy, completely outside the framework of international law."
"When we are trying to attract foreign investment into our minerals and petroleum blocs, we want to give confidence to people."
He did not believe what was being negotiated in the TPP would limit the Government's ability to pass laws.

U.S. Push to Limit Copyright Law May Be Undercut by TPP Secrecy,IPS,12.7.6
In a surprise move this week, the United States says it is pushing for limitations to international copyright norms currently under negotiation surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the massive free trade agreement that could go into effect by the end of the year.
Observers have expressed cautious optimism at the move, but much will still come down to the exact wording of any eventual agreement. For this reason, some are suggesting that long-criticised secrecy surrounding the talks could lead to a weakening of any progressive new stance on copyright.
“We are concerned that, depending on the actual text and its scope and interpretation, the provision in the TPP will restrict fair use and other copyright exceptions and limitations crucial for the progress and access of culture, science, education, and innovation,” five U.S. groups focused on intellectual property rights warned in a release on Tuesday.
In a blog post on its website on Tuesday, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced, “For the first time in any U.S. trade agreement, the United States in proposing a new provision … that will obligate Parties to seek to achieve an appropriate balance in their copyright systems in providing copyright exemptions and limitations.”
Such limits, long urged by scholars and activists, would allow for the “fair use” of copyrighted material for a variety of critical, scholarly or journalistic purposes.
While the USTR describes these principles as “critical aspects of the U.S. copyright system”, watchdogs have noted that such ideals often tend not to be exported via international agreements.
Having been discussed for the past three years, though pushed primarily by the United States, the TPP is being discussed by the nine member states (in addition to three new entrants) during a secretive 13th round of negotiations held this week in San Diego, California. The talks will run through Jul. 10.
With the TPP’s ultimate size being left open, some observers are suggesting that the setup could bring about a new paradigm in the global economy. For many, such stakes only heighten the need for an open, transparent process of negotiations.
In this light, the USTR’s brief blog post, which only contained a single substantive paragraph on the new copyright decision, highlights how little is really known about the copyright discussions – or anything else in the San Diego talks.
Even parts of the U.S. government have been decrying this lack of transparency, including a significant contingent of President Barack Obama’s own party. Last week, four U.S. senators and 132 representatives sent a letter to the USTR, complaining that the U.S. Congress was being left out of the TPP discussions.
Warning against “needless secrecy and over-classification of documents”, the members complain that they have not even received summaries of the U.S. proposals. The letter notes that that “over 600 business interests” have had access to the negotiating text but that “small business, civil society, and other interests … have little meaningful input.”
According to Lori Wallach, with Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group, “The message to President Obama from his own party is clear: Neither the public nor members of Congress will tolerate more of these NAFTA-style trade agreements” – referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Obama campaigned against in 2008 – “and the text of this deal must be released because there are major concerns about where it is heading.”

Over-privileging investors

The letter from Congress also notes troubling rumours that the TPP draft is currently “providing extraordinary investor-state privileges, and restricting access to lifesaving medicines in developing nations”.
These two issues have been of particular interest to observers, both in and out of the United States, in the run-up to the San Diego talks.
“Most of us would agree that the investor-state relations chapter is one of the most egregious parts of the TPP,” Kristin Smith, with the Stop TPP Coalition, told IPS from San Diego, where negotiators have been met daily by hundreds of protesters.
“This gives foreign corporations the right to sue governments when they feel their profits are being hindered by U.S. laws and regulations for things like public health, food safety, worker safety and environmental sustainability. These trade agreements are basically another corporate power tool to prioritise profits over people’s needs.”
Such concerns are being echoed by groups throughout the Asia-Pacific region currently involved in TPP negotiations.
For instance, under these provisions, “tobacco companies could challenge Malaysia’s regulations,” warned the Consumers’ Association of Penang on Thursday. “(E)ven just the prospect of such suits would have a ‘chilling effect’ on regulations.”
Meanwhile, the new U.S. move on copyright limitations would have no impact on the longstanding push to ensure that developing countries are able to maintain access to generic medicines, as this issue is covered under another chapter, on intellectual property.
“The United States … is demanding strict provisions that will reduce access to these affordable medicines,” six Malaysian medical organisations stated on Thursday. “(W)e categorically oppose US demands for longer and stronger patents on medicines and medical technologies that are essential to save Malaysian lives.”
Returning to the primary issue underpinning all such frustrations, the groups continue: “Since the negotiations and texts are secret, Malaysians have no way of knowing what has been agreed to and whether there have been overt and arbitrary breaches of the right to health.”

Occupy, internet freedom groups join protests against TPP,aliran,12.7.5

地域労働団体とサンディエゴ選挙運動が先頭に立つ”ストップTPP聯合”が一週間の抗議行動を計画
If the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) is signed at the end of this year, it may rewrite the rules of the global economy for the foreseeable future.
That’s because the TPP, currently being negotiated between the US and eight Pacific rim countries, will likely remain open for other countries to join—as Canada, Mexico and Japan have already expressed interest in doing, even though they will not be permitted input into the agreement.
Negotiating further bilateral trade agreements, a process that draws intense public scrutiny, could become altogether unnecessary for Washington. But as negotiators resumed TPP talks in San Diego yesterday, they were met by a coalition of labour, environmental and Occupy groups intent on stopping the mega-deal, glossed by its critics as “Nafta on steroids.”
The Coalition to Stop the TPP, spearheaded by local labour groups and Occupy San Diego, is planning a week of protests and public education events against the agreement. A rally, organised by the San Diego-Imperial Central Labour Council on the opening day of the talks yesterday, drew about 100 demonstrators, according to the Washington Post, and a series of public panels on free trade, outsourcing and intellectual property regimes will take place throughout the week. A Quebec-inspired “pots and pans march” is planned for 7 July, with solidarity demonstrations taking place in New York, Portland and several other cities.
Though TPP negotiations were initiated in 2008 under the Bush administration, talks under the Obama administration have proceeded behind closed doors, which has drawn fire from law professors, members of Congress and demonstrators alike (While, as Lori Wallach of Public Citizen notes, even the World Trade Organization releases draft negotiating texts, in 2010 TPP countries pledged not to go public with these until four years after any deal was signed).
A leaked draft of the agreement, posted on the website of the trade advocacy group Citizens’ Trade Campaign, shows that the TPP includes not only new investor safeguards that would expand the ability of corporations to challenge domestic regulations and ban “Buy America” policies, but sweeping new provisions on intellectual property.
When negotiators last met in Dallas this May, they were interrupted by demonstrators who attempted to give US Trade Representative Ron Kirk a “Corporate Power Tool” award. The Texas AFL-CIO and local environmental groups also delivered more than 40,000 signatures on a petition demanding that the draft agreement be released to the public.
Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of the Citizens’ Trade Campaign, notes that though 600 corporate lobbyists and representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce have been given access to TPP negotiating drafts, the drafts have still not likewise been made available to members of the Congress or the public. “The administration has done everything it can to keep this under wraps, and we see that as a recipe for a bad deal,” he told In These Times. “We’re calling for the TPP to come out of the shadows.”
But he also acknowledges that beyond the issue of transparency, his and other groups are hoping to harness plummeting public approval of free trade agreements (FTAs) to derail another Nafta-style deal altogether.
In the wake of Nafta, which has seen the US economy shed 5 million manufacturing jobs, subsequent free trade agreements have been met with opposition from civil society. More than 700000 Koreans protested during negotiations of the US-Korea trade agreement, the largest FTA since Nafta, before its passage last fall. TPP negotiations have thus far been the subject of demonstrations in Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia, and the possibility of Japanese entry into the talks sparked mass protests last fall.
While opposition to the TPP in Japan and New Zealand is bolstered by a refusal among large segments of lawmakers to support the deal in its current form, the US public remains far ahead of most of the political class on the issue of FTAs. (Though last week, 133 members of Congress wrote to Kirk to demand greater access to the details of the TPP negotiations). In the US, a September 2010 NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found that only 18 per cent of Americans believe that free trade agreements created jobs and a majority agree that free trade agreements hurt the nation overall.
In addition to strong opposition from the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO and other labour-backed groups, environmental, internet freedom and public health groups have also been mobilising against the TPP. “This agreement has 26 chapters, and only two of them cover trade per se,” explains Stamoulis on why broad opposition to the agreement has been solidifying. “The rest are concerned with creating a radical deregulatory agenda … This is really a corporate power grab by Wall Street, Big Oil and Big Pharma.”
One part of the agreement concerns a tougher intellectual property regime for medicines that critics say could reverse gains in combating the Aids pandemic and other diseases in poor countries. Though Obama pledged as a candidate to protect access to essential medicines in any bilateral trade agreements negotiated by his administration, leaked drafts of the TPP show that the US is pushing for stricter patent regulations that would likely increase the cost of lifesaving medicines by keeping generic alternatives off the market.
In a statement opposing these provisions of the TPP, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says, “Our experience around the world shows that MSF’s treatment programmes – and our patients’ lives – depend on the availability of quality and affordable generic medicines.” The UN Development Programme and UNAIDS have also urged world leaders to abandon provisions of the agreement that could endanger public health.
Meanwhile, though the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) stalled in Congress earlier this year, the chapter concerning intellectual property would put many of its controversial provisions into effect by creating a global system of IP enforcement that is stricter than current US law. Many of the advocacy groups that fought Sopa have launched “Stop the Trap”, a website and petition that asks viewers to oppose the TPP on the grounds that it would infringe on internet privacy and criminalise some internet use.
　

Canada, Japan move toward free trade talks,Globe and Mail,7.5
Canada and Japan are taking initial step toward free trade negotiations, with the first formal meeting of senior officials since the March declaration the two countries intended to seek closer economic relations.
Officials of the Joint Economic Committee began two days of discussions in Ottawa on Wednesday in what is seen as a table-setting exercise to broader talks.
The agenda calls the discussions to focus on reconstruction efforts following last spring’s earthquake and tsunami, bilateral co-operation in energy, natural resources, as well as co-operation in science and technology.
Although Japan is the world’s third-largest economy, with a gross domestic product of almost $6-trillion, the Canada-Japan free trade initiative has mostly flown under the radar since the announcement this spring.
More top of the news has been Canada’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the European Union trade talks and even negotiations with the India.
But in a note, Trade Minister Ed Fast’s office said as of 2011, Japan was still Canada’s biggest partner in foreign direct investment in Asia, reaching $8.4-billion at the end of 2011.
It is also one of Canada’s biggest trading partners. Canadian exports to Japan totalled $10.7-billion last year, mostly in the areas of natural resources, oil seeds, wood and meat.
Imports for the same year from Japan were valued at $13-billion, principally cars and machinery.
A joint study by the two countries estimates that a successful agreement could boost the Canadian economy by about $3.8-billion and exports by two-thirds.
The talks have the backing of several key industry groups, particularly agricultural producers looking to expand into a lucrative market, but the Canadian Auto Workers has warned it would hurt the economy overall.
CAW president Ken Lewenza said after the March announcement that Canada has a $5-billion auto deficit with Japan even though the country has no tariffs on auto imports.
“There will be no benefit to our auto industry or other important sectors of the economy like manufacturing and processed goods,” he argued. “Instead there will be a huge cost to key sectors when we eliminate the small tariff on goods coming into Canada.”
The Harper government has gone all in on the trade front, however, and mostly brushed off critics as overly alarmist.
In the budget, the government named trade a key pillar for the economy of the future and pledged to actively pursue “new trade and investment opportunities, particularly with large, dynamic and fast-growing economies.”
It is believed the admission ticket to the TPP table was Ottawa’s willingness to discuss modification to its supply management system in dairy and poultry, as well possibly further tightening of patent and intellectual property protections.
With the TPP and now Japan, Ottawa will have four major trade talks in progress at the same time, with China likely waiting in the wings.
Ottawa has identified key sectors it believes could benefit from a free trade deal with Japan, including agriculture, food and beverages, information and communications technology, aerospace and defence, environmental industries and clean technology, energy, mining and forestry, and life sciences.
Officials estimate the talks could take about two years to reach a conclusion.

Lawmakers, Groups Urge Greater Transparency in Trans-Pacific Talks,National Journal,12.6.27
　交渉中のTPP協定についてもっと詳しい情報提供を求める米議会、非営利団体、その他関係者のオバマ政府に対する圧力が高まっている。27日には、およそ130人の民主党下院議員が、TPPに含まれる分野を所管する委員会で、議員との「もっと幅広く、深い協議」を行い、中心問題に対する議会の一層の関与を許すように求める書簡をカーク通商代表に送った。
The Obama administration is coming under increased pressure from Congress to provide lawmakers, nonprofits, and other stakeholders with more details about a trade agreement being negotiated by the United States and a group of Asia-Pacific countries.
The latest complaints over the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks come from about 130 Democratic House members. In a letter on Wednesday, they urged U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to undertake “broader and deeper consultations” with lawmakers on committees with jurisdiction over the areas covered by TPP and allow for great input on key issues.
“The proposed TPP [free trade agreement] necessitates extreme care at the front end, which includes input from members of Congress serving on committees whose jurisdiction is directly implicated by the broad array of trade and non-trade policies being negotiated,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and George Miller, D-Calif. “We are troubled that important policy decisions are being made without full input from Congress.”
The lawmakers noted that U.S. officials have provided drafts of other trade agreements while they were still being negotiated, including the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
The transparency of the TPP talks has prompted bipartisan concern. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., also has voiced concerns with the negotiating process and about the intellectual property provisions in the pact. He wrote Kirk on Tuesday formally requesting that he and some staff be able to attend the next round of talks, which start next week in San Diego.
“Given the immense impact that this agreement will have on many areas of the American economy, including intellectual property, I respectfully request that you allow me and certain members of my staff to be present as observers for this round of negotiations,” Issa wrote. “It is my hope that observing the negotiating process firsthand will help to alleviate some of my concerns about the process through which the agreement is being negotiated.”
The concern from lawmakers has been echoed by some public interest groups, which launched an international coalition on Wednesday to fight Internet restrictions, aimed at fighting copyright infringement, that could be included in TPP. Many of the groups involved in the coalition also helped successfully derail two controversial U.S. antipiracy bills earlier this year.
The coalition, launched by the Canadian group OpenMedia, includes U.S. organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Citizen, and Public Knowledge.
USTR officials have defended the TPP process, saying they have sought input from a variety of stakeholders before each round of talks. They also note that some secrecy is necessary to ensure a frank exchange of views among the negotiating countries.
“In order to reach agreements that each participating government can fully embrace, negotiators need to communicate with each other with a high degree of candor, creativity, and mutual trust,” USTR said in a fact sheet on the TPP talks. “To create the conditions necessary to successfully reach agreement in complex trade and investment negotiations, governments routinely keep their proposals and communications with each other confidential.”
USTR made similar points during the negotiations over ACTA when concerns about the transparency of the process also were raised about that agreement.
But greater transparency may not be enough to address concerns with TPP. Even though drafts of ACTA were released before the agreement was finished, it didn’t quell concerns over the international deal, which the United States helped lead. Internet activists and other opponents worry that ACTA’s intellectual property safeguards are too broad and could hamper Internet innovation.
A European parliament trade committee voted to reject ACTA last week, a move that could doom the pact when it comes up for a vote before the full parliament next month.
　

Harper hails Canada's invitation to join Pacific trade talks,Globe and Mail,12.6.20

ハーパー首相はTPP参加のために何も犠牲にしないと言うが、乳製品・鶏肉・卵の保護が槍玉に挙がるのは明白。
Stephen Harper is bringing Canada into ambitious new Pacific free-trade talks, fulfilling a key pledge to reduce reliance on the United States but increasing pressure on protected industries to accept more foreign competition.
While the Prime Minister insisted nothing has been sacrificed to join the group, it’s clear that the controversial issue of supply management – Canada’s protection of its dairy, poultry and egg industries from foreign competition – is on the table.
“It’s going to be a real test of the appetite of Canada for trade liberalization,” said Andrew Cooper of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, who is observing the Los Cabos summit. “Of course, we’re going to have the problems of marketing boards and Canadian responses to the pressure that’s going to come. If it doesn’t come from Australia, it’s certainly going to come from New Zealand.”
Tuesday’s invitation to join the talks known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership came at the conclusion of G20 meetings in Los Cabos, Mexico, in which European leaders announced they are considering a makeover of their banking sector to prevent struggling financial institutions from causing more problems for their debt-burdened governments.
Canada campaigned behind the scenes for months to get an invitation to the trade talks. All nine member countries of the TPP talks must accept Canada’s admission, and while most already have, U.S. approval is the key.
All sectors of the Canadian economy will be under scrutiny for signs of protectionism. Canada has also agreed to live by any deals that have already been reached, although Mr. Harper said the talks seem to be at an early stage.
“Canada has not agreed to any specific measures in terms of an eventual Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement,” Mr. Harper said. “As in any negotiation, nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to by all parties. … We’re obviously not going to try to undo what’s been done, but these negotiations in our judgment are at fairly preliminary phases right now.”
When asked about supply management, Mr. Harper said his government has a strong record of defending those sectors in trade talks.
Questions remain about whether Canada will be a full member of the negotiations. Reports from Washington suggested that TPP countries were reluctant to give new members full veto rights over chapters in the agreement, a condition Canada initially rejected.
Mr. Harper has said joining the TPP is a key element of his government’s push to expand trade with fast-growing Asia, but has faced difficulty persuading the Americans that Canada is a major defender of digital intellectual property such as movies, TV shows and music.
Mr. Harper met on Tuesday with U.S. President Barrack Obama as the announcement of the invitation emerged. A day earlier, Mexico was invited to join.
The U.S.-led talks appear likely to eclipse the North American free-trade agreement in importance.
The two invitations must have domestic approval from each of the nine current TPP states – the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. Canada expects approval in the fall.
The current TPP countries represent 510 million people and a gross domestic product of $17.6-trillion. With the inclusion of Mexico and Canada, the free-trade zone could reach 658 million people and $20.5-trillion in GDP.
The Dairy Farmers of Canada said they expect Canada can have both free trade and supply management.
“The position of the Canadian government is that it will defend supply management, and we expect them to do just that,” said Therese Beaulieu, spokeswoman for the Dairy Farmers of Canada, a national lobby and promotional group for Canada’s 12,965 dairy farms. “Canada has been able to conclude a number of trade agreements before, and we’ve kept supply management. We have confidence that they can do it again.”
Others aren’t so sure.
Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, noted that Canada moved to “prove its readiness to join the high-standard TPP agreement” by approving new copyright legislation this week. He added, however, that “issues still remain regarding Canadian policies on intellectual property and supply management.”

Mexico agrees to join regional trade talks,The New Zealand Herald,12.6.20

U.S. Trade Representative Kirk Welcomes Canada as a New Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiating Partner,USTR,12.6.19

U.S. Trade Representative Kirk Welcomes Mexico as a New Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiating Partner,USTR,12.6.18

リークした最終協定案にISDS条項が生き残っているとニュージーランド政府が動揺

TPP: Australia odd man out over disputes,The New Zealand Herald,12.6.14
Prime Minister John Key says he would be unhappy if an Australian objection to the investor-state dispute procedure proposed in the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement survives through to the final deal.
"I would be very surprised," he said yesterday. "I think we're all in or all out."
Critics of the agreement say the disputes procedure, which bypasses domestic courts in favour of tribunals in other countries, could compromise a government's ability to legislate or regulate in the public good. A leaked document with a draft text of the latest investor-state dispute procedure shows that Australia is listed as the only opponent among the nine countries negotiating the deal.---------

Fur flies in NZ over secret trade negotiations,The New Zealand Herald,12.6.14
Leaked drafts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has reignited the debate over loss of national sovereignty in free-trade pacts, with opponents claiming the TPP as a sell-out to global corporate interests and advocates dismissing the concerns as "overblown."
The issue gained legs again after the release of what Auckland University law professor and anti-TPP campaigner Jane Kelsey says is a leaked and recent draft of the TPP, which includes provisions allowing foreign investors to sue governments in the event that policy decisions erode their profits.----------

Trade deal claims a 'beat up' - Groser,The New Zealand Herald,12.6.14
Trade Minister Tim Groser has rubbished claims the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement would leave New Zealand vulnerable to being sued by foreign companies.
Professor Jane Kelsey of Auckland University last night said the proposed agreement would leave Government open to litigation if it tightened regulations in areas such as gas and oil and exploration or even if it introduced a capital gains tax----------

Civic groups mount call-in against US beef,Taipei Times,6.11
Civic groups and the Consumers’ Foundation yesterday encouraged consumers to call legislators and urge them to vote against relaxing a ban on ractopamine residues in US meat products, stressing that the health of Taiwanese should not be used as a trading chip for economic development.
A vote on amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) is scheduled for tomorrow in the legislature, which if the ban on ractopamine residues in meat products is relaxed, restrictions on US beef imports would be eased.
Quoting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) from last week about the decision on US beef imports having significant influence on whether Taiwan could become an open and liberalized economy, the foundation said the government should halt all US beef imports until clear scientific evidence proves the meat products containing the residues are not harmful to health.
A meeting next month of the Codex Alimentarius Commission would continue its discussions on the maximum safe level of ractopamine residue, foundation chairperson Joann Su (蘇錦霞) said.
“Why can’t we wait until July to make the decision after an international consensus has been achieved?” she asked.
Although the government has stated that relaxing the ban was needed to resume negotiations with the US on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), Su said: “Can it be guaranteed that our nation’s economy will be truly opened and liberalized if TIFA negotiations resume? And is it worth it to trade people’s health to regain the right to negotiate the TIFA?”
The civic groups and the foundation urged legislators who had proposed a zero-tolerance policy to remain insistent on their proposals and encouraged consumers to call lawmakers to express their opposition to relaxing the ban.
Meanwhile, a non-profit business organization in Washington said on Saturday that Taiwan’s chances of entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are linked to the resumption of trade talks with Washington under a bilateral agreement.
If the legislature votes to relax the ban on US beef imports containing ractopamine tomorrow, Washington would resume TIFA talks with Taipei, US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said.
In turn, the only way for Taiwan to win the support of the US for entry to the TPP is for the two sides to move toward the resumption of TIFA talks, he said in an interview.
Talks under the TIFA, which was signed in 1994, have been stalled since 2007, mainly over Taiwan’s restrictions on US beef imports. Asked about Taiwan’s chances of signing a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the US, Hammond-Chambers said “it’s not possible at this stage” since US President Barack Obama’s administration is currently focused on the TPP, not an FTA.
However, if TIFA talks can be resumed, the two sides could discuss issues related to e-commerce and bilateral investment treaties that would help create business opportunities for both sides, he said.
The Office of the US Trade Representative said in an e-mail interview that the US would support Taiwan’s inclusion in the TPP “at an appropriate time.”
The US supports any new candidate for membership that shows the ambition to reach the high standards of the TPP, the office said.
Taiwan is eager to be included in the TPP agreement being negotiated by leaders of nine countries — Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US.

　農業情報研究所注　ractopamine(ラクトパミン）は豚や牛などの飼料に添加する成長促進剤で、肉の脂身を減らす効果もあるというが、これが残留する肉を食べるとさまざまな中毒症状を引き起こす、発がん性が疑われるとも言われる。日本の食品安全委員会は0.001mg体重kg／日の残留基準を設定したが、台湾では残留はゼロでなければならないとされている。2011年1月にはこれが残留する米国産牛肉が台湾の店頭で見つかり、撤去された。米国政府は、台湾のTPP参加を含む米・台貿易・投資関係の改善を望むならばこの禁止を解除し、BSE輸入規制も緩和せよなどと圧力をかけ、台湾政府もこれに応じる姿勢を示している。しかし、これに対する野党・国民の反発も強い。

Next Round of Pacific Trade Talks Pact to Be Lengthy, Secretive,IPS,12.5.8
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012 (IPS) - On Tuesday, the latest round of negotiations begins on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), potentially the largest free trade agreement ever signed by the United States.

Despite claims by the U.S. government of considerable transparency in the process, the talks, being held in Dallas, are covering material that has remained almost completely out of the public's eye.

"Because the negotiations have been conducted in extreme secrecy, we have no idea yet what is in the text," says Rashmi Rangnath, a director with Public Knowledge, an advocacy group here in Washington. "What we do know is that lack of transparency tends to skew the text of such agreements in favour of large corporations."

Although a draft of the chapter on intellectual property rights was leaked in February, much of the rest of the 26 chapters have been kept away from public scrutiny.

Some outside of the negotiations have had significant time with the chapters, however. Early drafts of TPP content have reportedly been discussed at length with large corporate interests, such as 20th Century Fox, which has a key stake in intellectual property-related regulations.

Thus far, the justification for this secrecy has been minimal. "Basically we have been told two things," Rangnath says. "First, that this is precedent. And second, that this level of secrecy is necessary during negotiations in order to arrive at a compromise."

The TPP would be a free trade agreement between the U.S. and eight Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Canada, Japan and Mexico are also expected to join the talks, although the Japanese have yet to make a final decision on the matter.

In addition, the possibility of future Indian and Chinese participation is being held out as a far-off though, for many, tantalising prospect.

Proponents suggest that, if the TPP passes, it could boost intra- regional trade by more than a trillion dollars per year by 2025.

While the official talks are to be held May 11-13, the full 12th round is said to be stretching from May 8-18. This is an unusually lengthy period for face-to-face negotiations, particularly given that the 11th round took place only two months ago, in March in Australia.

According to observers, the administration of President Barack Obama is pushing for as many such rounds as possible before the end of the year, in an attempt to bull through the far-reaching agreement.

It is unclear whether that timetable is possible, however, as pushback against the TPP has continued in recent months, from both governments and civil society.

Over the past week alone, members of the U.S. government have urged President Obama to alter certain draft provisions of the agreement, while a U.S. business lobbyist has rued a great "gap between the ambitious vision of our leaders and what is being proposed at the negotiating table."

Longstanding criticism also has yet to abate. Much of this comes from the fact that, for most countries, the TPP would not offer many trade benefits – including, most importantly, greater access to U.S. markets.

Simultaneously, U.S. negotiators are pushing for significant concessions from potential members.

"This is very unusual for a free trade agreement," says Sean Flynn, director of the Information Justice Program at American University here in Washington. "There is very little 'carrot'" to counteract some of the more strident compromises.

Flynn points out that Chile, Australia, Singapore and Peru have each expressed public reticence over the current contours of the TPP, given that these countries already have expansive trade agreements with the United States.

"This means that Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia would pay the highest cost," he suggests.

According to what has been seen from the leaked chapter on intellectual property rights, Flynn warns, the TPP appears to be pushing a "maximalist", enforcement-focused approach.

This directly counters the "development agenda" that has been evolved in institutions such as the U.N.'s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), through processes involving significant input by developing countries, outside of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"The U.S. clearly wants to go beyond international standards on intellectual property – beyond WIPO," says Krista Cox, an attorney at Knowledge Ecology International, an NGO here in Washington.

For developing countries, some of the most direct impacts of this expansion of punitive powers over intellectual property could be on health issues.

While U.S. global health policy has seen significant strengthening over the past five years, passage of the TPP "would start rolling this back," warns Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group here.

Worldwide over the past 10 years, prices for HIV-related medicines, for instance, have fallen by 99 percent, largely driven by competition from generic drugs. While the fight against generics by large pharmaceutical interests has largely shifted away from the WTO, Maybarduk suggests, the TPP agreement signals the next iteration of that effort.

"The TPP could well be the worst that we have seen," Maybarduk says. "Not only does it run contrary to the U.S.'s own pledges on global AIDS work, but the TPP will set the template for the entire Asia- Pacific region. That could have an impact on half of the world's population."

Trans Pacific Partnership: an Economic, Political Opportunity for Obama,Forbes,12.4.30
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougschoen/2012/04/30/trans-pacific-partnership-an-economic-political-opportunity-for-obama/?feed=rss_home

カナダ・ファースト貿易相、乳製品・卵・鶏肉の輸入障壁の一部除去を示唆。米国によるTPP交渉参加承認に向けて前進。

Canada making progress with U.S. in effort to join new TPP trade bloc: Fast,Winnipeg Free Press,12.4.19
OTTAWA - Canada is making progress in convincing the United States that it should be allowed to join an ambitious new trans-Pacific trade bloc, federal Trade Minister Ed Fast said Thursday.
Washington is believed to be one of the key impediments to Ottawa's efforts to join the nine-member Trans-Pacific Partnership, largely because it also wants to protect dairy, egg and poultry farmers in Quebec and Ontario from outside competition.
But the minister, who was attending the inaugural trade ministers meeting of the G20 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Thursday, said he has been working on his U.S. counterpart to sort out their differences.
"In my meetings with Ambassador Ron Kirk, each meeting has been productive," he said in a telephone interview.
"We believe we are making significant progress in impressing upon the United States that Canada will be an ambitious negotiating partner, that we will be a very valuable asset at the negotiating table," he said.
"We've also impressed upon the Americans that Canada and the U.S. should be walking together as partners as we open up new opportunities within the Asian economies. We have highly-integrated economies, supply chains and we should be doing this in partnership."
Fast said Canada's protectionist supply management system should not be an impediment because Canada has agreed to put it on the table in talks, as it has done in other negotiations.
That does not mean Canada would necessarily negotiate the system out of existence, however.
"Since the late 1980s, we've negotiated agreements with 14 countries, (and) in each case we have been successful in addressing the issue of supply management and that has not prevented us from actually completing free trade negotiations," he pointed out.
The goal is to get a deal that benefits the country overall, he said, which suggests Canada may be willing to remove some of the barriers to imports in dairy, eggs and poultry if the price is right.
Fast will also be talking to New Zealand's trade minister, another critic of supply management, at the G20 meetings which end Friday.
　

米議員、日本に改革意欲があるのかの強く疑う

U.S. lawmaker: strong doubt on Japan entry in trade talks,Ruters,12.4.18（）
(Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker on Wednesday expressed strong doubt about Japan's willingness to make significant reforms required under a proposed trade pact, while the top U.S. trade official said there was no timetable for a decision on Japan, Canada and Mexico joining the negotiations.
Representative Sander Levin said concerns about Japan's possible entry in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks were more troublesome than questions still surrounding Mexico and Canada's bid to join negotiations with nine other countries on the regional trade pact.
"I'm not sure that TPP can be the arena for successfully confronting those issues," Levin said, referring to longstanding barriers to Japan's auto and insurance markets. "I think we need to be realistic."
Levin, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, made the comments at an event organized by the Emergency Committee for American Trade, a U.S. business group, to build support for the trade pact, which supporters hope can be concluded this year.
The United States and other current TPP countries - Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei - say they want to negotiate a "21st Century" agreement that goes further than previous trade pacts in tearing down barriers to trade and raising international standards in areas like labor and environment.
Japan, Mexico and Canada in November expressed interest in joining the talks. Over the past five months, the current members have been discussing the feasibility of bringing the three countries into the negotiations without lowering ambitions for the agreement or allowing the talks to drag on and on.
MEETING WITH JAPAN'S LEADER
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on April 30, about two weeks before the nine current TPP members convene in Dallas for the 12th round of negotiations on the proposed pact.
Noda faces opposition at home to the agreement and there are also concerns in the United States his government might not last long enough to finish the talks if Japan is let in.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, asked about the possibility that Noda might simply tell Obama that Japan was no longer interested in joining the TPP, said it would not be appropriate for him to speculate on that.
"We certainly hope their interest is going to be the same," Kirk said, while repeating any new entrant must be prepared to meet the high goals already set for the pact.
Kirk said a decision on the three countries' entry would be made collectively by the current TPP members and be driven by "substance" rather than any deadline.
The preference would be to decide on all three countries at once, but it is also possible that the decisions could be made "sequentially," Kirk said.
In the meantime, negotiations among current TPP members will proceed full speed ahead, with the goal of finishing by year end, Kirk added.
House of Representatives Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, a Republican, said he believed Mexico was "in the best position" now to join the negotiations.
Both Dreier and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, said they supported all three countries joining the talks, but only if the applicants can convince current TPP members they will not bog down the talks or lower ambitions for the pact.
In the case of Canada, there are still questions about whether it is willing to open its agricultural market further than it has done under the North American Free Trade Agreement and address certain U.S. copyright concerns.
Mexico has pressed for an answer soon on its application, saying it should not be held back by lingering concerns over Japan and Canada. But it is also facing U.S. pressure to do more on intellectual property rights.
　

Trans-Pacific Trade Pact Reveals U.S.’s Unbridled Corporate Agenda,IPS,12.3.9
SYDNEY, Mar. 9, 2012 (IPS) - The 11th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) talks concluded in Melbourne Friday, with member states suggesting the negotiations had made significant progress but civil society groups reiterating concerns that the United States' corporate demands could undermine social, economic and environmental policies.

China, TPP and Japan's Future in Asia,Forbes,12.3.7

日本はTPPよりも中・日・韓を緊密に結びつける地域FTAを優先せねばならない―陳徳銘中国商務部長、開催中の全人代大会で。

For evidence of China’s vision for an integrated East Asian political economy–binding China, Japan, and Korea–look at remarks of China’s Commerce Minister yesterday in Beijing. Speaking at a press conference during the ongoing Chinese National People’s Congress Minister of Commerce Chen Deming’ssaid of that Japanese entry into negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, if it happens, “Should not be allowed to influence progress on other types of cooperation in the East Asian region.”
Translation: Japan should give priority to and focus first on the talks being promoted by Beijing to create a regional Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which would closely bind China, Japan, and Korea. The next major negotiations of this FTA be held in Beijing in May.
An article in the March 7 Nihon Keizai Shimbun datelined Beijing covers this fascinating and important story. The article presents Beijing’s view that TPP has become a U.S.-driven initiative that would create a literal “pan-Pacific” free trade zone, but exclude China. China wants Japan, as well as South Korea, to be the key members of a ASEAN “+ 3” regional Free Trade Agreement that would bring these countries (with China clearly dominating) together the ten ASEAN countries–Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Brunei. In the past, Japan has been lukewarm toward this initiative, clearly concerned about Chinese dominance, and has proposed–to China’s annoyance–including of India. Recently, apparently sensing a loss of momentum, and the opposite pull of TPP, Beijing seems to have acquiesced in Indian participation.
This week TPP is being hotly debated in Japan’s Diet. Noda has been strong in supporting Japan’s participation. TPP clearly has much to offer Japan. Indeed, big business and manufacturing interests–represented by Keidanren–have been saying that Japan’s accession to an eventual agreement is vital if Japan is not to suffer ruinous competitive decline. And sectors that see TPP as a threat–particularly agriculture–are in most cases resorting to emotion and scare-tactics rather than sober analysis of the TPP’s likely costs and benefits because the case for TPP is persuasive.
Who would have thought, though, that China would be entering the TPP-debate fray? That Beijing has done so is not, in my view, to suggest that they are somehow trying to stir up matters. Rather, I think what Chen Deming said reflects Beijing’s real desire to further nurture the ties that are already growing increasingly close between a large swath of industry and commerce in the two countries. From this perspective, TPP, and particularly huge political and bureaucratic investment being required for its promotion by the Noda government, is unhelpful and unwelcome.
I have written before that I think Japan’s future is one of increasing economic, social, and even political integration within a China-dominated Asia. In determining how to approach the ASEAN+3 FTA trade talks, on the one hand, and TPP, on the other, Japan will be both balancing its near term interests and plotting its future course.
　

Labor standing firm on Pacific trade deal,The Sydney Morning Post,12.3.5（オーストラリア政府、ISDS条項反対の態度を堅持）

The federal government is standing firm against Australian and US business demands that it allow controversial dispute settlement clauses into an ambitious new Pacific free trade deal.

Australia is one of nine nations seeking to reach final agreement on a deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by the end of 2012.

The 11th round of negotiations - which also includes the US, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Peru, Chile and Brunei - are now underway in Melbourne.

But talks have entered troubled waters over what are known as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses.

These typically give businesses from one country power to take international legal action against the government of another, over agreement breaches.

The clauses are included in many multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements.

But the federal government last year issued a new trade policy, in which it ruled out supporting such clauses, arguing they ran the risk of giving foreign business greater legal rights than domestic businesses.

The government believes such clauses could also constrain its ability to make laws on social, environmental and economic matters.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson on Monday said the government would not change its position.

"We do not and will not support investor-state dispute settlement provisions," Dr Emerson told reporters on Monday.

"This is government policy.

"It's the result of a cabinet decision in April last year, reaffirmed at the (ALP) national conference."

The heads of 31 US business groups last week urged President Barack Obama to take Australia to task over the issue.

"Australia's rejection of investor-state dispute settlement is not only thwarting the ability of the TPP negotiations to produce strong enforcement outcomes, it is also having a corrosive effect on the level of ambition and other key aspects of the TPP negotiations," the business leaders said in an open letter to Mr Obama.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) on Monday also expressed concerned about the government's position.

"We think the Australian government's approach of non-inclusion is poor policy and leaves Australian firms exposed when they are doing business overseas," ACCI Director of Trade and International Affairs Bryan Clark said.

"We urge the government to reconsider its position on ISDS and negotiate all aspects of the TPP in good faith and in support of Australian business interests."

There are hopes the TPP will serve as a building block for the ultimate goal of a free-trade deal covering all 21 APEC countries

How TPP affects NZ artists,Scoop,12.2.29（TPPはニュージーランドその他の国のアーチストにどんな影響を与えるか。著作権問題）

conomists Call for TPP Deal to Allow Capital Controls,Scoop,12.2.29

More than 100 Economists Call for Trans-Pacific Trade Deal to Allow Capital Controls to Prevent Crises

----------

The economist statement reflects growing consensus that capital controls are legitimate policy tools. It notes, however, that nearly all U.S. trade agreements “strictly limit the ability of trading partners to deploy capital controls – with no safeguards for times of crisis.”

They recommend that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement “permit governments to deploy capital controls without being subject to investor lawsuits, as part of a broader menu of policy options to prevent and mitigate financial crises.”

Civil society groups slam corporate influence on TPP talks,Scoop,12.2.28（国際市民グループ、TPP交渉に対する大企業の影響力行使に抗議）

Press Release: Joint Media Statement

International civil society groups slam corporate influence on Trans-Pacific free trade talks in Melbourne

The 11th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement negotiations between Australia , the US , New Zealand , Malaysia and four other countries starts in Melbourne on March 1. Civil society groups from those countries are in Melbourne to contest corporate influence and debate the issues.

"US global corporations are driving US negotiators’ proposals," Dr Patricia Ranald, Convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) said today. "Pharmaceutical companies want more rights to charge higher prices for medicines and tobacco companies want the right to sue governments for damages if they regulate tobacco advertising. Australian government policy should mean that it refuses these demands, supports labour rights and environmental protections and releases the text of the agreement for public debate before it is signed."

Chee Yoke Ling, Director of Programmes, and Third World Network, explained: "In Malaysia , the TPPA will have a big impact, since we do not already have an FTA with the USA . Leaked proposals from the USA on intellectual property show that it continues to seek strong protections for its pharmaceutical corporations, which will raise medicines prices for millions of ordinary people. And the USA ’s push for investor rights for its companies threatens needed regulations for all the countries involved."

Professor Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland added: "We are seeing a real backlash in New Zealand against the National government's revival of the old privatisation and deregulation agenda, and mounting foreign control of the country's natural resources and key assets. That is starting to infect the TPPA, which is why Trade Minister Groser wants to push the deal through before people understand how it will lock us into that model forever."

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, a prominent U.S. consumer organization, said: "Despite repeated polls showing that a majority of Americans oppose more of the same corporate power grabs disguised as "trade" agreements, negotiators are pushing for a TPP that would only benefit the 1 percent. Whatever one thinks about "free trade" that is not the real agenda of US negotiators. There are 600-plus official corporate Trade Advisors who want to use the TPP to get new investor rights to control other countries' natural resources, attack health and environmental policy and boost their profits with rules that force drug price increases and financial deregulation."

The leaked US proposals and US health and consumer groups’ commentary are at
http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2011/10/22/leaked-trans-pacific-fta-texts-reveal-u-s-undermining-access-to-medicine/
Australian health groups’ commentary on the leaked documents is at
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/public-health-at-risk-in-trade-talks-20110914-1k94z.html#ixzz1XyOtY2CC.

Japanese TPP Negotiations Depends On US Go-Ahead,Tax News,12.2.27Z(日本のTPP交渉参加は米国の出方にかかっている）

While the Japanese government has now concluded a first round of talks with each of the nine countries that are presently in negotiations for an extension to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it is becoming apparent that it will be up to the United States to make the final decision whether to allow Japan to join those negotiations.

Since the November 2011 announcement by the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, expressing Japan’s intention to begin consultations with TPP countries toward joining the TPP negotiations, six countries - Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam - have all said they would support Japan's participation in the negotiations.

However, Japan needs to receive the support of all nine countries, and recent talks with two other countries - Australia and New Zealand – have been inconclusive. Japan's Parliamentary Senior Deputy Foreign Minister Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi has disclosed that both countries welcomed Japan's interest in joining TPP negotiations but have stopped short of declaring their support.

For both countries, the crucial question is whether the Japanese government will be able to deliver a professed willingness to place all goods and services on the negotiating table for trade liberalization, despite substantial opposition in Japan from its agricultural sector, as there could be no tariff exemptions allowed for sensitive products, such as beef, rice and dairy products.

Australia has expressed such doubts due to the fact that, in all of its bilateral talks with Japan over the past five years, it has found a total unwillingness from the Japanese side for tariffs to be reduced on agricultural products in their proposed free trade agreement (FTA).

Both Australia and New Zealand will therefore reserve their judgment on Japan’s TPP application until they can be assured of Japan’s attitude to farm products and after the US has made its decision.

However, the latter is under some doubt as, following two days of technical level meetings which finished on February 22, the US is still considering whether it can support Japan’s application. The meetings were a follow-up to the senior-level consultation held with Japan on February 7.

Following those meetings, the Office of the US Trade Representative said that the inter-governmental consultative process would be continued, with further meetings to be arranged at a later date. It was emphasized that the meetings had allowed the US to continue an assessment as to whether Japan was ready to meet TPP market-opening standards.

In fact, a recent US consultation process raised considerable domestic opposition to negotiation with Japan, particularly from the automotive sectors, which currently represents 70% of the total US bilateral trade deficit with Japan. In the opinion of the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), which represents the common interests of the Chrysler Group, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Company, Japan has “the most closed auto market to imports in the developed world”.

“Japan’s trade barriers in the auto sector cannot be addressed easily or quickly, and will needlessly slow down the negotiations,” the AAPC added. “To date, Japan has not indicated a willingness to change its decades-long practice of maintaining a closed automotive market.” It believes that the problems with the Japanese auto market "cannot be negotiated away in an FTA. These obstacles are deeply rooted in an economy structured exclusively for export, and in a regulatory framework that significantly limits imports.”

In addition, late last year, the leading US politicians dealing with trade matters expressed their own doubts, concluding that, while "Japan is a long-time US ally and friend in Asia,” the “paramount considerations in evaluating a request relating to a trade agreement must be whether Japan is willing and able to meet the high standard commitments inherent in US FTAs and whether inclusion would truly open this historically-closed market to the benefit of our companies, workers and farmers”.

NewHarper to announce free-trade talks with Japan,Canada.com.12.2.23（カナダ首相、日本とのFTA交渉表明へ）

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to announce free-trade negotiations with Japan when he heads to Asia for a summit in March — talks that could be the ticket into a more important economic club.

Harper is expected to make a stop in Tokyo to meet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda while in Asia for the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, the National Post reported Thursday.

Both Canada and Japan are trying to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade group of nine Asia-Pacific countries, and this bilateral deal could put the countries into a position to support the other's entry into the TPP with neither having to compromise on supply management or rice.

The free-trade deal could mean more cars being imported into Canada from Asia by removing the current 6.1 per cent duty on vehicles imported from outside North America.

A move such as this, however, is likely to face resistance from auto unions, which say increased trade could result in job losses.

Harper and Noda are also expected to announce easing the ban on Canadian beef to allow cattle up to the age of 30 months into Japan. This would change Japan's ban on Canadian beef older than 21 months imposed due to fears of mad cow disease.

Japan is Canada's fourth-largest trading partner, with exports totalling almost $9.2 billion in 2010 — an increase of more than 10 per cent over 2009. Total merchandise trade in 2010 reached $22.6 billion.

Furthermore, Japan is Canada's largest foreign direct investment partner in Asia.

The federal government announced last year a joint study to examine a potential free-trade initiative with Japan.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who was in Japan in November on a trade mission, said he's not familiar with all the details of free-trade negotiations with Japan but believes the two countries have a strong political and economic relationship.

"Clearly, Japan remains a very large and important economy, and one where we have friendly relations. We have mutual interest in trade," Oliver said.

However, launching free-trade talks doesn't mean a deal will be completed anytime soon.

The federal government has no free-trade deals with Asian countries and observers argue Canada has developed a reputation for starting talks but being unable to complete them.

Canada, for example, has been negotiating with Singapore for a decade and Korea for seven years.

Regardless, negotiations with Japan could pave the way for the two countries to be accepted into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which many analysts believe could eventually trump the North American Free Trade Agreement in economic importance.

The TPP is currently a nine-member Asia-Pacific regional trade agreement being negotiated among the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

"Entry of Canada, Japan, and/or Mexico (into the TPP) would increase the economic significance of the agreement," says a new analysis from the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

"Current TPP countries represent about five per cent of all U.S. trade. Canada, Japan, and Mexico would increase the TPP's share of U.S.-world trade from five per cent to 40 per cent."

Dairy industry welcomes public committment to open trade - Tasmanian Country Hour - ABC Rural Australian Broadcasting Corporation) ,ABC rural news,12.2.16（オーストラリア、酪農・乳業）

Canada set to discuss all issues in Pacific talks,Reuters via Yahoo!News,12.2.15（カナダ）
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A tariff structure that supports domestic farmers should not be a barrier to Canada's entry to a pan-Pacific trade pact, although all issues are up for negotiation, Canada's trade minister said on Wednesday.
Ed Fast, interviewed in Singapore at the end of a tour of Southeast Asia, said most of the nine countries working toward the conclusion of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal supported Canada's entry into the negotiations.
He declined to say which countries did not back the plans. News reports have suggested Australia and New Zealand are unhappy about Canada's supply management support program for poultry and egg producers, a network of marketing boards and quotas intended to keep markets stable and ensure farm incomes.
Some reports suggest U.S. support is not guaranteed.
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Canada risks being left empty-handed in Asia,Globe and Mail,12.2.15
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Except the U.S. isn’t sure what’s to be gained by Canadian entry, even though the Harper government is counting on the U.S. to bulldoze our entry. New Zealand doesn’t want Canada if we insist as a pre-condition that protection for supply management remains untouchable. Australia, playing a smart game, keeps saying publicly it would like Canada present but would shed no tears if it didn’t happen.
Not for the first time, and likely not for the last, Canada’s national interests are being sacrificed to protect supply management.
　

Trans Pacific trade deal at what price?,Globe and Mail,12.2.5（カナダ）
On Tuesday, as Stephen Harper arrives in China, a delegation from Japan begins talks in Washington that could affect Canada’s trading future far more than anything that gets signed in Beijing.
The Japanese badly want to join the Trans Pacific Partnership, an ambitious set of trade negotiations between the United States and eight other Pacific nations that have gone far farther, and faster, than most observers expected. Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson said last week that he expects to see “something substantial – not a finalized agreement, but substantial – by around July.”
More related to this story
For Harper, all trade roads now lead to China
The integrated approach to engaging Beijing
Signs augur well for Canadian entry in TPP: Trade Minister
That doesn’t leave much time for the Japanese to get in, or for Canada, either. This country is also eager to join the TPP.
But membership has its costs, and some may not be aware how high those costs could be.
All nine member countries within the TPP talks — the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei — must agree before any country can join the talks at this late stage. The Japanese are in Washington to secure the Obama administration’s support, but the Americans are demanding a very high price.
They want Tokyo to scrap regulations that keep American cars out of the Japanese market. They want the Japanese to eliminate their prohibitive tariffs on rice and other agricultural imports. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler has declared that her country will tolerate no exceptions if Japan wants America’s support for entry into the TPP. The Japanese, desperate to revive their flagging manufacturing sector, appear willing to agree.
If that’s what the Americans want from the Japanese, it’s easy to project what they will want from Canada: an end to the supply-management system that protects dairy and poultry products; an end to restrictions on foreign investment in banks, telecommunications firms, cultural industries and airlines. The talks also aim to harmonize intellectual-property laws.
One senior official, speaking on background, suggested that Canada’s signature on a TPP treaty would amount to a whole new free trade agreement between Canada and the U.S., stripping away all of the protections the Mulroney government secured in the original talks, with all the other members of the TPP having access as well.
And if that weren’t enough, Nkenge Harmon of the Office of the United States Trade Representative, pointed out in an e-mail exchange that the administration would “want to ensure we have Congressional support … before finalizing a decision about Canada's entry.”
What are the chances that the Harper government would agree, even in principle, to scrap supply management, eliminate restrictions on foreign investment – when the Prime Minister himself said recently that he doesn’t want to see foreign ownership of such sensitive companies as Research in Motion – and surrender sovereignty over copyright law, all for the sake simply joining the TPP talks? One is tempted to reply: zero.
Yet officials remain optimistic. International Trade Minister Ed Fast is jetting off to Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore this month, followed by Vietnam in March, to secure the consent of those TPP members. As for the U.S., the Canadians are confident that it would be geopolitically unthinkable for the U.S. to support Japan’s admission to the TPP while opposing Canada’s.
And on the question of concessions, officials say the government is prepared to put everything on the table, but only after Canada actually gets admitted to the TPP table. Whatever happens, if the TPP turns out to be as ambitious as everyone involved says it is, joining it would end decades of protection in sectors of the economy that no Canadian government has ever dared tamper with. It will be a brave prime minister who signs his name to such a deal

Taiwan's Beef Over US Meat,Asia Sentinel,12.2.6（台湾、牛肉、狂牛病、アメリカ牛肉に残留するラクトパミン＝動物用医薬品の問題）

Payback time for Ma – getting rice bowls ready for Obama’s beef
Taipei’s relations with Washington have been complicated for years over the supposed dangers of US meat imports. First, it was bovine spongiform encephalopathy—mad cow disease—then it was the lean meat-enhancer ractopamine, which is banned in many countries but not the US, that led to import restrictions.
Although US beef has never been a major part of bilateral trade – in 2009 it was just US$114 million or around 0.5 percent of annual US exports to the island -- the Americans pressured Taipei with suspension of bilateral talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), and also made it clear that Taiwanese plans to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral free trade agreement (FTA) currently promoted by the Obama Administration, are not going anywhere until the beef issue is settled.
Today, however, Washington's push for a full opening for US beef is gaining momentum. That is because US President Barrack Obama helped his Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou get re-elected in mid-January. Since Obama needs the support of the American meat industry for his own re-election bid, no time has been wasted in reminding Ma that it's payback time.
It is widely believed that the Obama Administration dug deep into its bag of tricks to ensure Ma’s victory. Fearing that a win by the anti-unification Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would complicate Sino-US relations, Washington allegedly endorsed Ma via a sudden spike in visits by high-ranking US officials to Taipei and the island's timely listing as a candidate for the US's visa-waiver program, among other measures.
But there is no such thing as a free lunch. While Ma and his Kuomintang confederates were still celebrating the victory, Raymond Burghardt, the US-based chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy, flew into Taipei for private talks with Ma.
Once again, beef was at the top of the agenda. A continuation of the pre-election flattery did not happen.
“Beef is one step towards Taiwan having a broader and more liberal overall trade posture. [...]Taiwan needs to have better relations with the Asia-Pacific region, beyond China,” Burghardt told the press.
With Ma heavily under fire domestically for having made the island overly reliant on China, the Taiwanese president didn’t appreciate Washington's envoy’s remarks.
After mad cow disease was detected in the US, Taiwan, joining a global trend, banned US beef imports in December 2003. Rules were relaxed in 2006 to allow imports of boneless beef, and in 2009 an opening to American beef on the bone, organs and minced beef followed.
However, Ma, well aware that protests over the same issue in South Korea had almost brought down the government of President Lee Myung Bak, eventually overturned the decision to allow imports.
Last year, the Taiwanese government pulled US meat with the growth drug ractopamine. The drug, which is fed to pigs and other animals almost until slaughter in order to make them lean and boost their growth, is banned in the EU and China but is considered safe by the US, Canada and Australia, among other countries.
What turned off the Americans in particular were obvious demonstrations of double standards. US officials complained that the Ma administration's ordering of the high-profile removal of US beef from supermarkets in early 2011 created a misperception of an immediate risk to public health, and that when locally produced pork tested positive for ractopamine, authorities held no press conferences, nor were the tests' findings mentioned on government Web sites. Nor were reporters led by zealous officials through the local pig farms at the center of the scandal.
Other incidents proved that when dealing with self-made food scandals, the Taiwanese government tends to be a lot more forgiving. In late-May last year, it was discovered that toxic plasticizers had been added to food products on a massive scale for decades, potentially affecting the health of millions. In the aftermath, no officials of noteworthy rank were forced to shoulder responsibility, and also when the very ractopamine that led to the high-profile import stop for US beef was found in products for lunchboxes prepared for 200,000 elementary schoolchildren in New Taipei City, the case was forgotten very soon after.
Although Kuomintang officials have obviously been wracking their brains to seek a solution, the atmosphere is hardly optimistic.
“The issue hasn't got any easier to resolve because Ma has been reelected. It locks the heads of those responsible for Taiwan's external relations and strategic vision with a parochially-minded opposition,” said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council.
“No doubt President Ma is keen to have the issue resolved but the Council of Agriculture, the farmers and his own party are all against speedy resolution; indeed, against any resolution at all.”
Positioned in the middle of the struggle between government agencies and other players is the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Ministry is anxious to reopen talks on the trade and investment agreement as it crucially important to Taiwan's exporters. Rival South Korea has signed free trade agreements with the EU and US, but the Department of Health as well as the Council of Agriculture are dragging their feet. The COA previously said it cannot do anything before the Codex Alimentarius Commission – a body established by the United Nations and World Health Organization for the resolution of disputes concerning food safety– decided on whether an internationally accepted set of Maximum Residue Level standards for ractopamine will be set. If that is the case, the COA is to give the nod because World Trade Organization rules would force Taiwan as a member to do so. As it latest move, the COA proposed allowing the drug in imported beef but not in imported pork or allowing ractopamine in imports, while continuing to prohibit local farmers from using it.
Helena Bottemiller, Washington correspondent for Food Safety News, explained why this is unlikely.
“July is when Codex meets again. It appears the EU and China will still oppose it, and there are other countries that voted with them," she said. "An MRL could be adopted over China and the EU's objections, but because the EU has 27 votes, it's an important voting bloc.”
Ractopamine is much more dangerous than widely claimed, according to a recent report by Bottemiller which was commissioned by the Food and Environment Reporting Network. The report suggests it has sickened or killed more animals than any other livestock drug on the US market.. Safety studies at the heart of the current trade dispute were conducted by the drug-maker Elanco itself, she said, and apart from mice, rats, monkeys and dogs, only six healthy young men were tested.
“One was removed because his heart began racing and pounding abnormally”, Bottemiller said.
John F Copper, a professor of international studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, predicted the recent US push would harm Ma anyway as Taiwan's opposition can easily use studies cited by Bottemiller to gain public support.
“The issue can either be used to scare people, or as an excuse to stop the importation of American beef so as to help local beef producers, or both. In Taiwan's case it is the former.” Copper said. “Attacks over the matter will make it appear as if the government does not care about public health.”
Since unemployment is Washington's biggest voter concern, the Obama administration wants to make people believe it is doing everything possible to create jobs, Copper said. Agriculture is a big lobby in the US and rural Americans have a bigger vote because redistricting – the drawing of US electoral district boundaries in response to population changes – is notoriously behind in taking into consideration people moving to the cities, he added.
“Although Ma would have been elected without the US, it is clear that Obama helped Ma win re-election. The Obama administration feels that there needs to be a quid pro quo for the help, and that means Taiwan helping Obama get re-elected.”
Needless to say, the DPP isn't amused about what it claims was undue US interference in Taiwan's democratic elections, let alone Obama and Ma helping one another at DPP's expense. In what obviously has been a grudging snub against the Obama Administration, Ma's main challenger in the presidential race, the DPP's Tsai Ing-wen, was initially scheduled to meet AIT Chairman Burghardt on his visit to Taipei but later cancelled the appointment without real explanation.
Auguring particularly badly for Obama's initiative to present American voters a breakthrough on US beef exports to Taiwan in a timely manner, the DPP seemingly cannot wait to settle the score.
“I heard from a good source that the DPP will try to block legislature from approving US beef imports to get even with the US for helping Ma,” Copper said.

Cattlemen adopt policy to advance U.S. beef trade,South East Farm Press,12.2.6（全米肉牛生産者・牛肉協会=NCBA）

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Donald said NCBA members keyed in on international trade, specifically the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), during the convention.

He said a resolution was passed that codified NCBA support of a TPP that removes tariff and non-tariff trade barriers for U.S. beef to participating countries, which include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Donald said NCBA insists all participating countries, as well as any countries that join the TPP in the future, must fully abide by guidelines set by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
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CANADIAN AND U.S. INSURANCE INDUSTRIES TO JOIN FORCES TO PROMOTE IMPROVED GLOBAL TRADE,Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.,12.2.6（カナダ生命保険/健康保険協会）

Positive thinkers line up for next round of negotiations.

A group of US-based public interest and intellectual property experts has revealed it will seek a radical reframing of the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) at negotiations in Melbourne next month.

The group, convened by American University Washington College of Law’s Sean Flynn is proposing a more positive agenda based on new start points for future discussions.

Its approach differs from other TPP critics who are seeking to stop - rather than positively influence - the negotiations.

Flynn told iTnews he is hopeful that a constructive approach to the TPP may break some of the impasse that has confronted and tainted broad publlc acceptance of other initiatives, such as the Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement (ACTA), Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), while advancing public interest concerns.

Broadly, the group calls for “balance and flexibility within national intellectual property systems” to promote social development and economic innovation.

It proposes the following approaches to advance its objectives:

Intellectual property policy making should be conducted through mechanisms of transparency and openness that encourage broad public participation
Promote systems for limiting ISP liability that do not rely on censorship of online material without a court order
Require open ended, flexible exceptions that can adapt to technology and use changes
Require exceptions to copyright for non-commercial user generated content and for temporary reproductions for IT purposes e.g. cache and RAM copies.
Require a commercial threshold for the imposition of statutory damages
Require all damages to be proportional to actual harm cause to right owner
Require demonstration of sufficiency of evidence before any disclosure of internet user information
Ban the extraterritorial application of domestic IP standards to interrupt flows of goods or information (e.g. in-transit seizures, DNS blocking)
Affirmatively protect the ability of countries to authorise parallel imports

The group's first opportunity to influence the latest round of TPP discussions will be at a forum for industry and community representatives in Melbourne on March 4.

The Melbourne round of negotiations also includes an informal reception for stakeholders and negotiators on March 6 and a briefing from chief negotiators on March 7. Participant registration closes on February 17.

While outline TPP statements were revealed last November, the lack of official TPP drafts continues to fuel concern amongst activists that the agreement will lead to tough new anti-piracy laws, and muddy the water on cloud computing.

Leaders have previously agreed to consider how emerging technologies - such as the cloud - might help or hinder trade opportunities between member countries.

Thailand on the fence amid TPP talks,Bangkok Post,12.2.3(タイ）

Thailand should keep up on the progress of the new Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in order not to miss out on the new free-trade bandwagon.

Proposed by the US, the TPP now has nine members: Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, the US, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Japan, Canada and Mexico have announced their intention to join.

The TPP framework agreement, to be signed this year and including comprehensive market access, elimination of tariffs and other barriers on goods, services and investment, will become a full regional FTA to help raise living standards, improve welfare and promote sustainable growth, Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, told a seminar yesterday.

The catch, she said, is it comes with strict requirements on intellectual property rights, labour and the environment.

While Thailand has not joined the pact, Mrs Srirat said the country had to pay attention to this development. Some Asean members have already joined the TPP, and Thailand may lose out if investors are drawn to other countries offering more advantages through the TPP.

The US government plans to expand the TPP members to cover the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping. That would make it the biggest FTA in the world, commanding 40% of the global trade.

Prapat Thepchatree, director of Thammasat University's Research and Consultancy Institute, said the TPP was initiated because the US was left out from free trade pacts in Asia. The rise of China might also be a threat to the US.

He said if Thailand joins, it will be seen as supporting Washington, which may jeopardise FTAs in Asia and reduce the role of Asean in the region.

"The US will gain the most. Thailand's participation will also hurt our relationship with China, so Thailand should wait, as there is not yet a clear analysis of the pros and cons for us," he said.

Piyanuch Malakul Na Ayuthya, deputy secretary-general of Federation of Thai Industries, said the trend is moving towards more FTAs, with the TPP acting as the catalyst.

If Thailand joins the pact, trade in goods and services, as well as investment is likely to increase but some businesses may be forced to close or consolidate. But they will gain access to better networking of upstream, middle-stream and downstream industries which may result in lower cost. Rules and regulations will also be made more transparent and fairer.

An initial survey among the private sector shows those industries that would gain are textiles, garments, sugar, air-conditioners and steel, while those in machinery, electronics and electrical appliances, and the entire farm sector, particularly soybean and poultry, will be hurt the most.

Govt urged to be cautious on joining TPP talks,The Nation,12.2.3（タイ）
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Govt-urged-to-be-cautious-on-joining-TPP-talks-30175059.html
Thailand should not rush to join the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as it would bring many challenges along with its benefits, and its playing field would not be level, private enterprises and academics said.
At a seminar yesterday on "TPP: Hope or Political Games" organised by the Trade Negotiations Department of the Commerce Ministry, panellists shared similar views that the pact would create huge benefits for Thailand. However, there are also many issues of concern, mainly on different standards of protection of intellectual property, the environment and labour, and high competitiveness for some products important to Thailand.
Moreover, they warned that Asean might lose some attractiveness and impetus for pushing closer cooperation within the region, since many Asean members would focus more on the TPP, with its broader economic integration. Four Asean members - Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam - are already in negotiations with the US on joining the pact.
Prapat Thepchatri, director of Asean studies at Thammasat University, said Thailand should wait until other countries in Asia have decided to join the TPP before making its own move. Moreover, the country should carefully study what impact joining in the TPP negotiations would have on its relations with China.
Prapat pointed out that there would certainly be economic benefits from joining this multilateral pact and becoming a strategic partner of the United States. However, many sectors such as agriculture and some manufacturing could face negative impacts, and there could also be political ramifications from rushing into joining the TPP.
Piyanuch Malakul na Ayuthya, deputy secretary-general of the Federation of Thai Industries, said that if the Kingdom fails to join the TPP, it could fall behind Vietnam, which trades very similar goods. However, many Thai manufacturers are not ready to join the pact, as they need time to adjust and increase their competitiveness.
Sectors that want to join the TPP include textiles and garments, sugar, air-conditioning, electrical and electronics, foods, jewellery and rubber. Some of those enterprises are worried that they will lose tariff privileges under the US Generalised System of Preferences soon.
However, other sectors such as machinery, metals and some agricultural segments are highly concerned about the strong technological superiority of US industries, and therefore want no part of the TPP.
Still other sectors, including leather and leather goods, plastics, and automobiles and auto parts, are hesitant on the issue.
Piyanuch added that while considering whether to join the pact, the government should urgently help small and medium-sized enterprises improve their competitiveness before liberalising the market for other TPP members.
Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said the government would listen carefully to the views of private enterprises on whether they would like to join the agreement. It is conducting a feasibility study on the anticipated gains and losses from joining the TPP.

IP Protection Standards In TPP Represent The Downside Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership,Forbes,1.25
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/25/ip-protection-standards-in-tpp-represent-the-dark-side-of-the-trans-pacific-partnership/?feed=rss_home

US Copyright Lobby Wants Canada Out of TPP Until New Laws Passed, Warns of No Cultural Exceptions,Michael Geist,12.1.16（カナダ、著作権）

Federal Register submission to USTR regarding Japan joining TPP negotiations.,American Automotive Polcy Council,12.1.13（アメリカ自動車業界）

ACLI Comments On Japan's Interest In Joining Trans-Pacific Partnership,ACLI News Release.12.1.13
アメリ生命保険協会が日本のTPP参加についての要求を米政府に提出。
Washington, D.C. (January 13, 2012) -- The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) submitted a statement today at the request of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) regarding Japan’s expression of interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement (TPP). While supportive of Japan’s interest in TPP, the submission notes longstanding issues with regard to Japan Post Insurance (JPI) and insurance cooperatives (kyosai) for which TPP offers resolution opportunities.
JPI, through its holding company Japan Post Holdings, is wholly-owned by the Government of Japan. Under the Postal Privatization Law it was in the process of moving toward partial privatization in 2009 when new legislation was enacted to freeze the sale of government shares in the world’s largest life insurer. It is unclear at present whether that process will resume.
ACLI recommends that the U.S. government take no position on whether JPI should or should not be privatized and instead use the TPP process to ensure that JPI—whether publicly or privately owned—does not continue to enjoy government-bestowed privileges which distort competition.
For the TPP negotiations, ACLI states that the primary U.S. objective should be the establishment of a level competitive playing field in Japan’s insurance market, the world’s second largest. To ensure this is achieved, ACLI respectfully requests the U.S. government to seek an agreement with the Government of Japan that would, among other things, “provide for no new or modified product offerings by JPI until equivalent conditions of competition have been established,” an objective shared by the Japanese private sector and by Japan’s other major trading partners.
In its submission, ACLI notes the strides that Japan has made, particularly in establishing an independent and professional regulatory body —the Financial Services Agency (FSA). The submission, however, flags two problematic situations in connection with JPI and kyosai that remain as serious challenges on which U.S. and domestic Japanese insurers are allied:
JPI enjoys a number of statutory, regulatory and other governmental privileges which distort and undermine competition with the private sector, including Japanese providers.
Kyosai enjoy regulatory advantages over U.S. and other domestic Japanese insurance suppliers. Many of these kyosai are not regulated by the FSA.
The statement adds, the “TPP process offers the U.S. a unique opportunity to address both of these situations in a comprehensive manner,” “to ensure that competition is fair” and that “consumers are protected and provided a choice of products that best meet their needs.”

US Confirms TPP Not Aimed Against China,tax-news,12.1.9

At the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington to launch a speaker series entitled the "Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Recovery through Growth in Asia and the Next Generation of Regional Trade Agreements", the Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman explored issues of trade, as well as the overall role and influence of the United States, in the Asia-Pacific region.
Firstly, he said that the proposed extension to the TPP, which the countries negotiating it - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam - have said will cover "core" issues traditionally included in trade agreements, such as the elimination of tariffs and other non-tariff barriers, as well as rules on intellectual property, labour and the environment, is not directly aimed against the interests of China.
However, the US sees the TPP as central to its renewal interest in the Asia-Pacific region, and Froman pointed out that, in areas where the US has been critical of China recently, for example in the role of state-owned enterprises, the TPP is to establish rigorous trade rules to protect US manufacturing and jobs.
He also confirmed that the target of the US is to have the final text of the TPP agreement ready by the end of this year, although he foresaw that negotiations could continue into 2013. He disclosed that the US has no plans to enter into bilateral trade talks with single Asia-Pacific countries, while the TPP negotiations continue.
Froman said he did not think that the requests by Japan, Canada and Mexico to join those negotiations would delay the TPP agreement, as consultations with the three countries on whether they were willing and able to cover all the issues to be included in the new TPP could run concurrently with the main talks. He also expressed the US government’s view that the more countries in the Asia-Pacific that applied to join the TPP, the better it would be.

Deep divide over Trans-Pacific Partnership,The New Straits Times（マレーシア）,12.1.8
By Mutsuko Murukami
EARLY in December, a good number of Japanese diplomats, agriculture policy makers and trade officials flew into Kuala Lumpur.
Trade experts of nine governments held an initial round of negotiations for building the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the regional free trade agreement now in focus.
The Japanese officials, however, remained outside the closed doors of the talks and ran around collecting information about the other countries' discussion inside the rooms. The scene epitomises Japan's lukewarm stance -- and political pains -- over the TPP.
The TPP aims to form an expansive free trade zone among partner countries in the Asia-Pacific region, based on the Apec framework. Nine countries -- Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States -- formally joined the negotiations.
They moved on to reach outlines of the agreement at the Apec summit held in Hawaii in mid-November. Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said there that Japan would "start talks with other countries toward participating in TPP", indicating Japan's interest but carefully avoiding a formal pledge of joining the partnership.
The world welcomed Noda's comments in Hawaii as Japan's "Go" sign: if Japan joins the group, the TPP represents the regional economy accounting for 35 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). If Mexico and Canada, who both show interest, also join, it will be 40 per cent.
But Noda's positive remark caused another round of furore back in Japan, where the TPP debates are causing a deep divide.
According to a recent poll of major daily newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, 51 per cent support Noda's decision of joining the TPP, while 35 per cent disapproved. (The rest were either undecided or gave no answer.)
Exporters of industrialised products -- cars, electric appliances and high-tech machinery -- are calling for the regional free trade agreement even louder than before. The sharp yen appreciation reduced the price competitiveness of their products dramatically last year in the global market.
The March quake and tsunami damaged the supply chain for their production, too, leading to Japan's exports declining between April and September 2011. The current account surplus of Japan dropped 47 per cent during the period.
But many Japanese anticipate they will have more to lose than to gain by joining the free trade block, or foresee a devastating impact of opening the home market unconditionally to foreign products or services.
This time, it is not only a matter of cheaper imports hurting local businesses or increasing unemployment.
The fiercest opposition comes from traditional farmers, most of them with small patches of farms -- protected for decades by government subsidies and high tariffs on imports, and lately by the income support policy.
Japanese farm products, therefore, have been made least price-competitive by global standards.
For example, Japanese rice is typically sold at 500 yen (RM20.42) per kg, while the same kind of short grain rice is available in the United States for 180 yen.
Japan imposes a tariff of 778 per cent on imported rice, 252 per cent on imported wheat and 325 per cent on imported sugar.
If cheaper farm products from TPP partner nations fill the Japanese market, "Japan's agriculture will collapse", warns the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, the national umbrella of Japanese farmers.
Thousands of farmers were visible out on Tokyo streets in November in protest, while pro-TPP commentators call for structural reforms of Japan's uncompetitive farming.
Another controversial segment is medical service. In Japan, the government controls medicine prices within a relatively reasonable range.
People can access medical care covered by national health insurance.
The United States is reportedly interested in marketing American pricey drugs, providing non-insurance-covered expensive medical care and letting American businesses make inroads into the "market".
Japanese doctors warn that such deregulation would destroy Japan's egalitarian public medical system and promote disparity in availability of top medical service between the rich and the poor.
It is important for Japan to appeal that it is open to trade partners and has no other choice but joining the regional free trade partnership.
But, one government official says, Japan and the US will after all account for more than 90 per cent of the total GDP of all the TPP partners.
For Japan, therefore, TPP will be almost a bilateral free trade agreement primarily with the US.
Japan has been vulnerable to diplomatic pressure of its major ally.
And that is the bottom line of the TPP controversies, he indicates.
It remains quite a challenge for the Noda administration to move ahead and join the partnership, while keeping everyone reasonably happy at home
Read more: Deep divide over Trans-Pacific Partnership - Columnist - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/deep-divide-over-trans-pacific-partnership-1.29627#ixzz1j8GmhXHN

2011年

NZ has new TPP lead negotiator,New Zealand's National Business Review,11.12.19

Insight: Ten years on, American business rethinks China dreams,Reuters,11.12.9

Pacific trade deal could help save species: U.S.,Reuters,11.12.5

Trade in illegally poached and harvested wildlife and wild plants could be curbed, possibly saving endangered species such as the New Zealand Kakapo parrot, by a proposed Trans-Pacific trade deal, a top U.S. trade official said on Monday.
"Whether it involves forest products manufactured from illegally harvested tropical timber, or body parts from threatened tiger species, or fins brutally torn from sharks at sea, more can be done to fight illegal trafficking in wildlife and wild plant products," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said in a speech.

Japan’s Canadian auto units want Ottawa to strike free-trade deal,Globe and Mail,11.12.7(日本、カナダ）

US farmers back Japan bid to join Trans-Pacific pact,Reuters,11.12.5

Peru Sees Approval of Japan, Mexico Accords This Month,Bloomberg,11.11.4（ペルー）

Kirk Reviews US Trade Policy,Tax News,11.12.2（アメリカ）

It hurts dancing to supply management’s tune,Globe and Mail,11.12.2（カナダ）

TPP: APEC's anti-China son?,The Japan Times,11.11.30(オーストラリア）

By GREGORY CLARK

----------

APEC never got round to creating that trade bloc; for the most part, it has remained as a windy talk-fest operation, providing jobs for an army of bureaucrats and academics to talk about the benefits of free trade. As such, it eventually has had to admit China. But now we have the TPP as a free-trade bloc successor, with Australia once again playing a leading role, and with the anti-China bias even more obvious than before; the aim is to rival Beijing's offer of an FTA with the ASEAN nations.

As such it has been strongly embraced by a U.S. keen to link up with Tokyo to create the dominant Asian economic bloc. True, Tokyo still has to decide whether it can open its markets enough to be a member. But it does seem happy with the anti-Beijing slant.

Australia's role is especially curious. Its economy relies heavily on China. Yet Canberra has yet to see an anti-China trade and military alliance in Asia that it did not like. This constant reluctance to accept China as an important Asian nation is getting ridiculous.----------

Gregory Clark , a former Australian diplomat and government official, is a longtime resident of Japan. A Japanese translation of this article will appear on www.gregoryclark.net

Canada has a place in trans-Pacific free trade zone, Harper maintains,Globe and Mail,11.11.25（カナダ）

Supply management not in 'dress code' for TPP club: N.Z.,AgCanada,11.11.24(カナダ）

New Zealand disputes Harper's stand on tariff walls,Globe and Mail,11.11.24（ニュージーランド）

　→ニュージー貿易相　TPP交渉に参加したいなら”最もセンシティブな”分野の自由化も確約せよ

Beware the limits of latest free trade deal,smh,11.11.16

Russell Marks(lecturer in Australian politics at La Trobe University)

Prime Minister JUlia Gillard, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama and Russian at APEC this week. The annoucement of a Trans-Pacific Partnership in trade is not all good news for Australia.

China holds an open attitude to Trans-Pacific Partnership pact: official,xinhua,11.11.15

Deal seen boosting TPP bid,Business World(Philippine),11.11.15

Farmers want to press Obama on agricultural aid,ABC Rural News,11.15

Farmers are urging the Prime Minister to push for reforms to agricultural subsidies in the United States when President Barack Obama visits Canberra this week.
In his first presidential visit to Australia, President Obama will address Federal Parliament and visit Darwin

Dairy and poultry protection ‘non-negotiable,’ Charest declares,Globe and Mail,11.11.15

Quebec Premier Jean Charest says there's no way the Canadian government will give up the country's complex supply-management system in upcoming trade talks.The protectionist system governing poultry, dairy and eggs creates higher prices for Canadian consumers and has drawn ire abroad, but it profits domestic farmers・・・

He says the place to have a broad conversation about agriculture programs is at the global level, at the World Trade Organization. He said the same applies to other countries' agriculture subsidies.
“The supply-management system is non-negotiable,” he told reporters, speaking about the trans-Pacific trade talks.
“We're in the middle of Canada-Europe negotiations and we've never thought in the Canada-Europe negotiations that Quebec, or Canada, would settle with Europe on an issue like this one.
“Because it is a global issue. It's at the World Trade Organization that this will be settled.”

Is Harper putting dairy and poultry protection on the table in trade talks? ,Globe and Mial,11.14

・・・Deborah Elms, a Singapore-based scholar and Trans-Pacific talks expert, said・・・What I’m getting is that the Americans did not want Japan to join by themselves. Therefore, they went back to Canada and asked them to join again.” Prof. Elms suggests Canada may have been granted some sort of guarantee by the United States that it would not have to make concessions that would erode the tariff walls protecting the dairy and poultry sectors.

No guarantees on Pacific trade, despite Harper's 180,Globe and Mial,11.14

Canada under pressure to dismantle food quotas,FT.com,11.14

Pressure is growing on Canada to dismantle the longstanding but contentious panoply of quotas and import restrictions that protect its dairy and poultry producers from foreign competition.
The latest threat to the so-called “supply management” system comes from Japan’s decision to seek membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the emerging Asia-Pacific trade agreement, despite stiff opposition from Japanese farmers.

Concerns raised over APEC trade deal,ABC(Australia),11.14

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has dismissed concerns about a proposed Pacific free trade deal, saying it will mean more business and more jobs for Australia.
Nine APEC leaders believe they have nutted out a deal which will see a phasing out of tariffs and other trade barriers from next year.
The leaders love the idea, but unions, the Greens and some Labor MPs are worried the deal could disadvantage Australia.

US, China spar on free trade deal,ABC(Australia),11.14

Statement By U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk On Announcements From Mexico And Canada Regarding The Trans-Pacific Partnership,USTR,11.13

Gillard says agriculture will benefit from Pacific trade deal,ABC Rural News(Australia),11.13

APEC leaders agree on trade deal outline,ABC(Australia),11.13

Obama at APEC summit: China must ‘play by the rules’,The Washington Post,11.13

Obama Sees an Opening on China Trade,The New York Times,11.13

U.S.-China tensions colour APEC meet ,The Hindu,11.13

China-ASEAN Free Trade Area benefits both sides: Chinese Commerce Minister,xinhua,11.13

Ministers explain China's positions at APEC ministerial meeting,xinhua,11.13

Gillard heralds new era of trans-Pacific trade ,The Age(Australia),11.13

America turns to the Pacific,The Age(Australia),11.13

Statement By U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk On Announcements From Mexico And Canada Regarding The Trans-Pacific Partnership,USTR,11.13

Leaders eye final Trans-Pacific deal in 2012,Reuters,11.12

“Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak went further, even though a joint TPP leaders' statement had no specific target date.
"We've reached broad agreement that July should be our deadline," Najib told reporters.”
“Najib said leaders "accepted in principle" allowing Japan and other countries to join those already involved in the trade talks but stressed this should not delay the process.
The July deadline was "ambitious because of the enormous amount of work that needs to be done but we'll push as hard as we can and hopefully we'll be able to achieve the target that has been set," Najib said.

Chinese, Vietnamese presidents discuss bilateral ties,xinhua,11.12

Outlines of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,USTR,11.12

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Ministers’ Report to Leaders,USTR,11.12

Trans-Pacific Partnership Leaders Statement,USTR,11.12

The United States in the Trans-Pacific Partnership,USTR,11.12

Remarks by President Barack Obama in Meeting with Trans-Pacific Partnership,USTR,11.12

TPP LEADERS AGREE TO BROAD PACT BY JULY 2012,Bernama(Malaysia),11.12

Japan,mexico & Camada keen to join TPP,Bernama(Malaysia),11.12

Japan's TPP plans 'threat to NZ exports',Yahoo!New Zealand,11.12

UPDATE 2-US says Japan must meet high TPP standards,Reuters,11.11.11

Japan set to join trade discussions,FT.com,11.11.11

Canada, Mexico eye joining US-led Pacific pact,Reuters,11.11.11