Industry Backs Japan’s Entry Into Trade Talks

The chemical industry says it welcomes Japan’s recent request to join 11 other nations in negotiating a trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Talks have already been under way for three years, and the aim is to wrap up negotiations by the end of 2013. The 11 members—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S., and Vietnam—must formally agree to allow Japan into the talks. Japan is one of the top five markets for U.S. chemical exports. Japan’s entry into the partnership “would provide an opportunity to eliminate remaining chemical tariffs and address nontariff barriers to trade,” says Greg Skelton, senior director of global affairs at the American Chemistry Council, a U.S. industry trade group. With the addition of Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, the partnership would create a trade bloc worth more than 40% of the world’s gross domestic product—a larger share of the global economy than the 27-nation European Union holds. A free-trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region would also “provide important new market access opportunities for U.S. chemical manufacturers,” Skelton says.