US and Japan Fail Again to Agree on TPP

Japan and the United States have failed to clinch a much-awaited bilateral agreement seen as crucial for working out a multilateral Pacific Rim free trade deal, both sides said Wednesday.

The lack of progress made by the two largest economies in the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative clouds the goal proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama of all 12 negotiating members reaching an agreement by November.

“We were unable to make further progress on the key outstanding issues,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, referring to the agriculture and auto sectors, after a two-day meeting between Japanese economy minister Akira Amari and his U.S. counterpart, Trade Representative Michael Froman, in Washington.

“Both sides will consider next steps following consultations in both capitals,” it added.

Japan “made a proposal with flexibility, but we were not able to make further progress,” Amari, who is in charge of Japan’s TPP negotiations, told reporters separately.

“I had hoped (Japan’s new proposal) would lead (negotiations) to the next stage, but there was a gap in our discussions,” Amari said, describing what Tokyo offered as a “borderline.”

via Mainichi

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza