Last week, the U.S. announced that it had made a deal to allow Japan into talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major trade pact to lower tariffs on Pacific rim countries. The deal could encompass as much as 40 percent of global trade.
Bloomberg Businessweek reported:
“Japan’s entry into this important initiative for the Asia-Pacific region will help it to deliver significant economic benefits to the United States, Japan and the Asia-Pacific region,” acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said today in a statement welcoming the two-nation agreement.
The deal includes the U.S. gradually scrapping its auto tariffs over an as-yet-unspecified period. At the same time, Japan would negotiate cutting back “a number of regulatory and non-tariff barriers believed to keep U.S. autos out of the Japanese market.”
This has top labor leaders concerned. In a statement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka went so far as to say allowing Japan in could undo the White House’s auto industry bailout:
We appreciate that the U.S. government worked to secure important commitments for America’s workers, communities, and businesses. Unfortunately, our past experience over 30 years of unsuccessful U.S. efforts to pry open Japanese markets gives us little faith that these commitments will be completely implemented or effectively enforced. Japan has a long history of closed markets, currency manipulation, and non-transparent market barriers. We are skeptical that those measures, which unfairly disadvantage U.S.-produced exports and the workers who make them, will be changed thoroughly and quickly enough to provide real benefits.
Congressional Democrats and other labor leaders have expressed similar concerns.
The White House is bullish on the deal though, with Tom Donilon, a national security adviser to the president, touting the deal in the Wall Street Journal on Monday:
