Dear PM Abe, It has been widely reported that this week you will announce a formal decision to join negotiations to establish a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. We recognized the terms under which other countries, namely Mexico and Canada, have joined TPP negotiations were grossly unfair. Effectively, terms were dictated to these nations, which were told either they could comply or not join the talks. In particular, these entrants were required to agree that they would not seek to reopen any matters that had already been agreed to during the previous three years of negotiations. Further, they were forbidden from offering new proposals with respect to the numerous subjects that had already been decided. In sum, they were told that if they wanted to join TPP talks, they would be required to simply agree to all of the expansive terms negotiated by the other countries in any of the agreement’s 29 chapters of binding rules. All of Japan’s current and future domestic laws, regulations and administrative procedures would be required to conform with these rules established by other countries. In addition to trade in goods, including agriculture, these rules would severely limit Japan’s regulation of a wide range of sensitive matters such as foreign investors, postal, banking, insurance, energy, telecommunications, medicine approvals and prices, food and product safety, and more. In addition, the newly entering parties were denied access to the confidential negotiating texts that they were being required to accept. That means that they were required to agree to accept texts that they could not review in advance to assess the implications for their countries. Instead, they were required to rely solely on whatever informal assurances they had received from other TPP parties with respect to what the texts would require. We understand that at the March Singapore Round of TPP negotiations, U.S. trade officials informed other countries’ TPP negotiators of a process by which Japan would be allowed to join the agreement. U.S. officials have indicated that Japan has agreed to the same disrespectful, unfair process imposed on Mexico and Canada for accession to the TPP. The U.S. instructed the other TPP countries to complete their bilateral consultations with Japan by July. Japan would be allowed to join an agreement that has been negotiated by other countries, without any right or opportunity to set the terms or to alter terms that undermine the national interests of Japan. This is a fundamental surrender of sovereignty. If Japan is about to announce its desire to enter these negotiations, we are seeking your assurance that Japan will not be required to comply with the unacceptable process imposed on Canada and Mexico. We ask you state publicly the process that Japan will follow and the terms that have been agreed with the other TPP negotiating parties and to table a written assurance to this effect in the Diet. March 13, 2013 National Coalition for Commenting on TPP
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 02:50:34 +0000
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