The Yomiuri Shimbun
Little time is left for Japan to revitalize its trade policy.
The new administration under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda should decide in favor of Japan's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade agreement, now being negotiated by nine countries, including the United States, Australia and Singapore.
The TPP is aimed at liberalizing trade in a wide range of goods, such as industrial and agricultural products, and services, and to create a free trade zone.
The United States is leading efforts to realize the TPP.
Under the accord, all tariffs on goods are to be eliminated, in principle, within 10 years. The agreement is highly likely to produce new trade and investment rules for Asia and the Pacific region.
The U.S. administration of President Barack Obama is accelerating the negotiations so a broad agreement can be reached at the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum scheduled for November in Hawaii.
While emphasizing the importance of "economic partnership with the entire world," Noda has referred to the TPP trade framework only by saying, "While collecting information properly, I'd like to reach a conclusion at an early date."
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Ministers' reluctance feared
We also fear that the ministers concerned with the TPP may be reluctant to join the trade framework.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoshio Hachiro, who is supposed to help revitalize the nation's industrial sector, apparently has no fixed opinion on the issue, saying only, "It's difficult to reconcile the elimination of tariffs and revitalization of the nation's agriculture."
Michihiko Kano, retained as agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister, is cautious about the nation's participation in the trade framework, saying, "The issue of when Japan should participate in the talks will be decided by taking all things into consideration."
And during the recent presidential election for the Democratic Party of Japan, in which he ran as one of the candidates, Kano went so far as to say, "The participation in the TPP will change the shape of the nation."
We wonder if they have little sense of crisis. Japan, an aging society with a declining birthrate, needs to absorb the vitality of emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere through trade liberalization to realize growth at home.
We hope Seiji Maehara, chairman of the DPJ Policy Research Committee and a pro-TPP advocate, will exert his influence to promote Japan's participation.
The administration of former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, which touted the "opening up of the nation in the Heisei era," originally intended to decide Japan should participate in the TPP trade framework in June, in time for the APEC forum meeting in November. But he put off reaching a conclusion on the matter after the March 11 natural disaster.
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Japan may be left behind
As things stand now, the negotiations may be concluded before Japan participates. Should Japan attempt to participate afterward, it may face disadvantageous rules.
Worried about the electricity shortage and the excessive and too rapid rise of the yen, Japanese manufacturers have been increasingly shifting their production bases abroad. It is feared the nation's industries may be hollowing out. If the domestic economy is hit by both a delay in the participation in the TPP framework and the hollowing-out of its industries, it may decline further.
In August, the government compiled interim proposals for rejuvenating the nation's agriculture, including one on expanding the scale of farmland.
It is important for the Noda administration to work out measures in line with the proposals to make the nation's agriculture competitive enough to deal with eventual trade liberalization.
The new prime minister's leadership will be tested over the nation's participation in the TPP free trade framework.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 6, 2011)
(Sep. 7, 2011)
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