The United States Trade Representative Michael Froman and Japan’s Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari held another two days of bilateral talks on April 9-10 to try to settle their countries’ differences over the terms of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade treaty, but again little progress was made.
It has been known for some time that the difficulties existing between the US and Japan, in their parallel TPP talks, running alongside the main treaty negotiations, lie in Japan’s ultra-sensitive agricultural import duties, in particular those on rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products, and sugar and starch, while the US also has problems with Japanese demands to cut its import tariffs on motor vehicles.
It was again reported that Japan made an offer to reduce its agricultural tariffs to some extent, particularly those on beef imports. Japan is reportedly prepared to go beyond the duty reductions recently agreed with Australia (19.5 percent from 38.5 percent), perhaps to as low as 10 percent. However, higher tariffs could be reintroduced if US beef imports increased too rapidly.
For its part, the US has continued to insist that agricultural tariffs should be removed in their entirety, and has not been impressed with either the limited offer for its beef exports, or the lack of significant movement on other food products.
While officials have continued discussions on automobile trade and agricultural tariffs in the hope of a breakthrough, both parties were tight-lipped after their meetings; Froman said that there were «still considerable differences in our position on key issues,» while Amari was reported to have added that «we still do not see where we will find common ground in each sector.» It is now considered extremely unlikely that a resolution will be found before President Barack Obama visits Japan to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 24.
Source: Tax-News