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E.U. and U.S. Open First Round of Trade Talks

WASHINGTON — American and European Union trade officials sought on Friday to put the best face on their just-opened negotiations over a potentially sweeping transAtlantic trade agreement. But there were signals that an accord might not be reached as quickly as politicians had hoped, and that some of the trickier issues will remain problematic.

“We are very interested in moving expeditiously in this negotiation, so we’re going to move quickly, but we’re also going to move carefully,” Dan Mullaney, the chief U.S. negotiator, said at a joint U.S.-European Union news conference. “It’s important to us that we arrive at a deal quickly, but it’s even more important that we get the agreement right.”

Significantly, neither he nor his European counterpart, Ignacio Garcia-Bercero, specifically confirmed the deadline of year-end 2014 for the negotiations that politicians on both sides had previously described.

While more than a dozen working groups on each side will continue to communicate by e-mail, video conference and other means as they lay out the complex framework of the proposed pact — the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — the next big round of meetings will not be held until sometime in October, and will take place in Brussels.

Furthermore, Mr. Garcia-Bercero said there would be no “harmonizing downwards” of European standards, which suggested that some of the thorniest issues — like Europeans’ aversion to American genetically modified food or hormone-fed beef — might resist early solution.

Mr. Mullaney, asked about discussions of “cultural” topics, said the talks had been inclusive and “covered the waterfront.”

It was unclear whether he meant to suggest that no subject had been ruled off-limits — including exports of films and other audiovisual products — which the French trade minister, Nicole Bricq, has insisted cannot be part of the talks.

Still, both sides attempted to give a positive cast to the negotiations. A deal would potentially bring huge benefits to economies that already account for about half of global economic output and one-third of world trade. Both sides have predicted a significant stimulus to their job markets and economies — by up to 1 point of gross domestic product — and a regularization of standards that may force competitors like China to follow their lead.

“The first round has confirmed that both sides are committed to a high level of ambition,” Mr. Garcia-Bercero said, adding that “both of us see this agreement as having potential to deliver something that will be transformative.”

The fact that this first round took place on schedule suggests the importance that American and European political leaders place on it. Many in Europe, and notably many Germans, favored a postponement after recent revelations of secret American surveillance programs aimed at Europeans. But Germany, with its huge export industry, is expected to be a prime beneficiary of any trade deal.

The surveillance question arose repeatedly at the news conference. Asked whether the two sides had exchanged assurances that they would not spy on each other, drawing a laugh but no explicit denial, Mr. Mullaney noted that the two sides were in separate talks on surveillance and data security, adding, “It really hasn’t come up in these discussions.”

Both of the chief negotiators said they were working to keep the talks transparent, as many nongovernmental groups have insisted.

Ira S. Shapiro, a lawyer who was a trade negotiator in the Clinton administration, said it would be difficult to judge the talks’ prospects until late in the process, noting that “the toughest issues tend to be resolved only at the very end.”

And each of those issues has its own committed advocates and stakeholders.

“Every trade barrier that countries maintain has behind it some very significant political, economic or cultural reasons,” Mr. Shapiro said, “so dismantling them doesn’t come easily.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/business/global/eu-and-us-open-first-round-of-trade-talks.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Japan Aims to Join Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks

In an impassioned televised address, Mr. Abe portrayed the pact, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as Japan’s last chance to remain an economic power in Asia and shape the region’s economic future.

“Japan must remain at the center of the Asian-Pacific century,” Mr. Abe said. “If Japan alone continues to look inward, we will have no hope for growth. This is our last chance. If we don’t seize it, Japan will be left out.”

With strong opposition from Japan’s farming lobby and other powerful groups, Mr. Abe is taking a big political risk in embracing the free-trade talks. Japan’s largest agricultural cooperative has campaigned against trade liberalization. It says such a change would devastate the nation’s farms, a plea that has resonated in the wider public. A majority of the lawmakers in his own Liberal Democratic Party depend on the rural vote and object to the free-trade deal.

Mr. Abe is betting, however, that his strong popularity will help him ride out the furor. He will face his first test at the polls this summer, when national elections for Parliament’s upper house are scheduled.

“I promise to take the best path forward for Japan’s national interest,” he said. “I will protect what we must protect and demand what we must demand.”

To soften the blow of a more open economy, Mr. Abe has secured vague support from the United States that some Japanese agricultural products — like rice, which is protected by a 778 percent tariff — would be exempt from the free-trade negotiations.

But insisting on these exceptions could hurt Japan’s hand in negotiations elsewhere, especially in talks to gain further access to foreign markets for its manufacturers, which account for three-quarters of the country’s exports. And some participating countries worry that Japanese demands will slow the talks.

The lead negotiator for Singapore, Ng Bee Kim, said last week that Japan would be permitted to participate only if existing members agreed that it could “keep up the good momentum” at the talks.

It is unclear to what extent Mr. Abe is willing to commit to other structural changes that the pact might demand of Japan’s economy.

Japan’s levies, which average 6.5 percent for its trading partners on most goods, are in line with those set by other industrialized nations. The exception is agricultural produce, on which Japan applies an average tariff of 25 percent.

The partnership seeks not only to eliminate tariffs but also to do away with other barriers to foreign trade, like cumbersome regulations — for which Japan is notorious — in retail, health, automobiles and other fields that shut out foreign competitors.

Proponents of free trade say such overhauls could transform the Japanese economy for the better, making insular industries more competitive. Joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership would expand the Japanese economy by at least $33 billion — nearly 0.7 percent — the government estimated.

Mr. Abe has made such structural changes one of the three pillars of his economic growth strategy, together with an aggressive monetary policy and government spending.

“It’s a start, but a very welcome step for economic growth,” Ryutaro Kono, Japan economist for BNP Paribas, said in a note to clients.

But Japan’s agricultural cooperatives have joined with other interest groups to portray the partnership as a threat to the Japanese lifestyle. A nationwide association of doctors opposes the pact, arguing that it will force Japan to open its state-controlled health industry to American-style health insurance, eroding its universal insurance system.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/world/asia/japan-aims-to-join-trans-pacific-partnership-talks.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

E.U. and U.S. Open First Round of Trade Talks

Japan Aims to Join Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks

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