EXCLUSIVE: Japan, U.S. to Aim for Package Deal on Farm, Auto Trade

New York, Feb. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japanese and U.S. negotiators will aim to draft a package deal on agricultural tariffs and automotive trade in two-day bilateral working-level talks from Monday within the framework of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations for free trade, Jiji Press learned Sunday. If the working-level talks in Washington produce a draft package deal that would bring a simultaneous solution to bilateral disputes in the two key trade areas, Japan and the United States will hold a ministerial meeting at an early date in an attempt to hammer out a broad agreement, informed sources said. The sources said Japan-U.S. talks have arrived at a phase where the two counties should aim for a package deal. After the Japanese and U.S. governments started working-level talks on automotive trade in Washington on Wednesday, officials including Hiroshi Oe, Japan's deputy chief TPP negotiator, and Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, will discuss tariffs on agricultural produce at a meeting from Monday. Takeo Mori, Japanese ambassador for economic affairs, and other officials who have been involved in bilateral auto trade talks will join the coming meeting in an attempt at a draft package deal. Before the two-day meeting, Oe held preliminary talks with Darci Vetter, chief agricultural trade negotiator at the USTR's Office, in New York Friday on the sidelines of a meeting of the top negotiators from the 12 member countries in the TPP negotiations. The two officials will move to Washington after the chief negotiators' meeting ends later on Sunday. In Japan-U.S. talks on agricultural trade, one of the key issues is whether Tokyo will accept Washington's call for expanding its annual import quota on U.S. rice for use as a staple food by about 50,000 tons. At the coming bilateral talks, participants will try to draft a package deal that would be acceptable to the related industries of the two countries. The package deal will cover, for instance, the handling of key Japanese agricultural items other than rice, including beef, pork and dairy products, as well as a detailed mechanism for the abolition of U.S. import tariffs imposed on Japanese automobiles and auto parts, the sources said. The Japanese and U.S. governments hope to reach a broad agreement as early as February to pave the way for a successful conclusion of the overall TPP negotiations. But lawmakers and related industry groups in both countries have been warning the two governments against making an easy compromise. In addition, the United States and emerging economies have remained apart over the protection of intellectual property rights in the broader TPP negotiations. END