Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade agreement currently being negotiated by the U.S. and nine other countries. However, the negotiations have yet to produce something meaningful. The challenge of coming together and creating a win-win situation between several countries with different values, traditions, and levels of economic development has proven to be a time consuming one in this case, and the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership has been stalling for several years primarily because, according to this article from the Wall Street Journal, the United States is the only "big player" in the negotiations. Japan has been considering entering the partnership for some time. The authors believe Japan ought to enter the free trade agreement for several reasons:
1) It will move the Trans-Pacific Partnership forward into realization of its goals.
2) It will set a positive example for other Southeast Asian countries.
3) Japan's participation could lead to a great deal of trade in the Asia-Pacific region, which would benefit not only Japan, whose economy is struggling, but also the other countries included in the agreement. The increase in trade would lead to permanent jobs, rather than temporary jobs created by stimulus programs.
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By Mary Willis and Ricky Mula
4 comments:
I think it would be very difficult to hold negotiations on this large of scale. However since the United States is the "biggest player" involved i feel they should have the most influence in the negotiations. However if they are wanting larger nations to join these negotiations they are going to have to sacrifice some of their cultural values in order to please Japan. When dealing with negotiations on this large of scale, i think it would be best for each country to hold their cultural expectations at the door, and focus on the primary goal at hand. Involving a third party mediator might be the best bet.
I agree with William's views on the United States being the "biggest player" involved in these negotiations, and therefore holding the largest influence on such proceedings. Additionally, i agree with his views of the States sacrificing some of their values if they would like to please countries such as Japan, whose cultural viewpoint on certain issues differs to that of the United States. I do however, disagree with holding cultural expectations at the door as it could set a precedent and cause a lot of discontent among some nations, as they believe it would be expected of them to do that all the time. A third party mediator would probably be best in communicating the ideas of each party to the other culture.
I think that asking Japan to join the group once everything the process has already been started would come across as an insult to them. They aren't going to want to commit to terms that they did not agree to. Like William said, this would be a very difficult negotiation process but since the U.S. is the biggest player it should get the bigger percentage of votes. However, if they want other countries with more pull (like Japan) to join they are going to have to restructure that process.
Bringing Japan into the TPP would bring legitimacy and further success for all members. Obviously bringing in a country that has such particular business practices would make negotiations difficult but as long as the two biggest players- the USA and Japan- can set an example by being open-minded and flexible then hopefully the TPP can be more effective in the future.
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