SINGAPORE – The top U.S. trade negotiator said he doesn’t see plans for an
Asia-only trade pact that would bind China and Japan to other economies
throughout the region as a threat to U.S. economic interests.
Instead, U.S. Trade
Representative Ron Kirk said he wants to accelerate efforts to conclude the
Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which includes a handful of Southeast Asian
countries but excludes China and Japan, at least for now.
“I am reasonably confident we’ll
get the TPP finished before the [Asia-wide free trade zone] comes into being”
Mr. Kirk said in a telephone interview Sunday, even though discussions about a
free trade area across Asia have gathered momentum recently.
Mr. Kirk spoke from Hanoi, where
he met with Vietnamese officials after taking part in a meeting of economic
chiefs from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.
The Southeast Asia visit by Mr.
Kirk is part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to cement U.S.
ties in Asia–and to counter China’s rising influence in the region. It comes as
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swings through the region, during which she
will seek to defuse tensions in territorial disputes that have flared up in the
South China Sea and in North Asia.
Mr. Kirk said he believes trade
has a role to play in ensuring such disputes don’t get out of hand. “One way to
inoculate yourself against strategic conflagrations is to make sure you have
strong commercial relations. Countries that trade with one another don’t go to
war with one another,” he said.
Mr. Kirk’s participation in last
week’s Asean trade meeting, relatively rare for a U.S. envoy, was overshadowed
by an announcement that the group has agreed in principle with China, Japan,
Australia and others to launch negotiations on a region-wide free trade zone.
“The United States is operating
under a mandate from President Obama that we will use every avenue available to
us to create new markets for American jobs at home,” said Mr. Kirk. “We cannot
and don’t begrudge any other economies from doing the same.”
The TPP talks are well underway,
in their fourteenth round of negotiations since talks launched in 2010, but
they are about to get a new wrinkle with Mexico and Canada joining
negotiations. Mr. Kirk said there is a pressing need to make progress at the
next round of talks this week in Leesburg, Va., before the new partners are
added. The negotiations currently involve Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia,
New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S., and Vietnam.
He praised Vietnam for its
contributions even though the country has little experience with trade
negotiations, and is at a lower level of development than other TPP partners.
“It’s a brutally tough thing because you’ve got to make some big hard
decisions, and they deserve a lot of credit,” he said.
Mr. Kirk has served since the
very beginning of the Obama administration in 2009, but he said he likely won’t
stay on even if Mr. Obama is re-elected. “The president deserves a fresh set of
eyes and ears,” he said.
Martin Vaughan
Business & Investment Opportunities
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