Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The U.S. government voiced strong displeasure with Japan last month for postponing a decision on whether to join negotiations for a U.S.-led Pacific free-trade accord, sources said Monday.

Birds of a feather: Ginowan Mayor Takeshi Asato (right) and local residents stage a sit-in Monday outside City Hall to protest the deployment of MV-22 Osprey vertical takeoff and landing aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa. KYODO PHOTO

Japan said in November that it would make its decision on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement around June.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan later fudged that deadline in May as he was struggling to get a grip on Japan's worst catastrophe since the war.

It also decided to put off a plan to establish its basic stance on reforming the farm sector, which is driving most of the opposition to the TPP.

A senior White House official voiced strong discontent with the delay in Japan's TPP decision because Japan is also moving ahead on talks about free-trade agreements with the European Union, as well as China and South Korea, the sources said.

Another U.S. government official concerned said the postponement has made it difficult for Japan to join the first group of nine economies leading negotiations for the TPP accord, they added.

The TPP, a regional initiative being negotiated by the United States, Australia and seven other Asia-Pacific countries, requires its member economies in principle to scrap all tariffs.

Japanese farmers are afraid the TPP will trigger a flood of cheap agricultural imports into its protected domestic market.

In a policy guideline adopted on May 17, Japan said that it would "comprehensively consider when to make a decision" on joining the negotiations on the TPP.

Later, in talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in France that month, Kan said the decision would be made in "the near future."

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated Tohoku's coastline and set off a radiation crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant that has damaged farming in the northeastern region to an extent that may not be known for several years.

The U.S. hopes that the nine negotiating partners, which include Chile, Brunei, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, will reach a broad agreement on the TPP before the summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Honolulu in November.

America's ire at the delay was conveyed through diplomatic channels, the sources said.

Futenma move official

Naha Okinawa Pref. KYODO

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa formally conveyed to Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Monday that Japan and the United States intend to go ahead with their plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma elsewhere in Okinawa.

During talks in the prefectural capital of Naha, open to the media, Kitazawa told Nakaima that the Japanese and U.S. governments intend to decide on June 21 on the construction of a two-runway replacement facility in a coastal area of Nago. It will have nonparallel runways in a V pattern.

The defense chief also said the two countries are making arrangements to withdraw the 2014 deadline for the controversial relocation at an upcoming ministerial security meeting between the two sides and instead agree on executing the relocation "as early as possible."

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