President Obama to Demand Japan to Open Market to US Automakers

President Obama will continue to demand Japan to open auto market for the US automakers, as he meets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today.

Among the conditions for Japan’s potential entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, would be opening the automarket for car makers such as GM, Ford and Chrysler.

The partnership “is intended to be a comprehensive, ambitious, high-standard, 21st-century trade agreement,” said Mike Froman, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “And anybody who joins TPP would be expected to sign on to that goal.”

The main focus of the discussion would be the security and trade issues, as Shinzo Abe plans to strengthen the US-Japan alliance against China’s territory demands and South Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Ford urged the President to make pressures on Japan to open its auto market for foreign automakers and stop weakening the yen as this gives an advantage to the domestic car makers.

Obama should “send a clear message that any future trade policy with Japan must ensure a level playing field and not come at the expense of American workers,” Hinrichs told workers yesterday at an engine plant in Brook Park, Ohio.

The yen has fallen 14% from mid-November, setting a record with twelve weeks of consecutive declines against the dollar. Currently Japan is struggling to avoid reaching the 15th year of falling prices and three quarters of contraction through December.