Froman Pushes Market Liberalization On Japan Trip
Speaking before the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Aug. 19, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman pressed Japanese officials to implement structural economic reform that will liberalize the Japanese market. Froman said bilateral U.S.-Japanese negotiations that run parallel to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, set to undergo a 19th round this month in Brunei, provide opportunity for Japan to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers.
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“Barriers to access to Japan’s automotive and insurance markets and non-tariff measures in other sectoral and cross-cutting areas hold back growth and innovation,” said Froman (here). “They undermine competitiveness, and they hurt workers, business, and consumers in both our countries.”
U.S. lawmakers and administration officials have long urged Japanese market liberalization. In late July, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin, D-Mich., proposed a plan that would incentivize barrier elimination through tariff reduction on U.S. imports from Japan, as part of a final TPP deal (see 13072414).