Ford lashes out at Japan's entry into TPP trade talks Ford's top executive in Washington has delivered a stinging attack against Japanese economic policies ahead of the country's entry into Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks next week, reflecting deep frustration about the negotiations within the US car industry. The remarks by Steve Biegun, the Washington-based vice-president for international governmental affairs at Ford, offer evidence of the complicated politics at work in the US over the TPP talks, which seek to liberalise trade among 12 Pacific-Rim nations. The big three Detroit-based automakers and other US manufacturers who feel they are being damaged by what they see as Japan's deliberate weakening of the yen could emerge as a hotbed of political opposition to the TPP and push their view in Congress. Their hackles have been raised by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's so-called "Abenomics" fiscal and monetary stimulus programme which has prompted a sharp weakening in the yen. Japan does not embrace the model of free trade. It's a mercantilist system where export driven growth is the priority and Abenomics, to the extent that we've seen it play out so far, it seems largely to be repackaged "Japan Inc" rhetoric: facilitating subsidised exports and casting that as competitiveness," Mr Biegun told the Financial Times. Japan is set to join the TPP talks late during its 18th round, which is under way in Malaysia. The Obama administration agreed to allow Japan's entry earlier this year after a lengthy negotiation in which Japan made some concessions to US automakers, such as lifting the quota on vehicles imported through a special programme. But the US auto industry says this is not even close to sufficient. "Japan is the most closed auto market in the world," Mr Biegun said. [It has had] a rolling set of barriers over the decades ranging from outright exclusion of importers, to harassment of import brands, and unique regulatory requirements that are often applied to a low volume import, creating excessive cost. But it is Japan's alleged manipulation of the yen more than market access issues that has rankled feelings in Detroit and elsewhere in the US rust belt, since it puts US goods at a disadvantage compared to Japanese goods in third countries. Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents all three big US carmakers, warned recently that "it will be impossible for his group to support the TPP" unless "strong and enforceable provisions to prevent Japan from intervening in currency markets to depress the value of the yen" are in the agreement. A bipartisan group of 230 members of the House of Representatives, representing more than a majority, last month wrote a letter to President Barack Obama saying it was "imperative" for currency provisions to be part of the TPP, though they stopped short of mentioning Japan by name. Washington and Tokyo have put in place bilateral negotiations designed to address the car industry tensions to run in parallel with the TPP talks, in the hope of striking a palatable deal for both sides and smooth over many of the remaining differences. "We are well positioned to level the playing field for US automakers and workers through the TPP and parallel bilateral negotiations," an official from the US Trade Representative's office said on Tuesday, noting that they have been "front and centre" of discussions relating to Japan's entry into the talks. But Mr Biegun, a former White House National Security Council official under George W Bush, said that was not enough. "It's incumbent upon Japanese to demonstrate what are they going to do to fix the situation," he said. One of his concerns with the TPP negotiations - often billed as a strategic priority for the US in containing China - is that "geopolitics has gotten ahead of the trade considerations here." Mr Biegun said Ford supported the TPP process from the beginning and through its expansion from four to nine to 11 members, including last year's addition of Canada and Mexico into the talks. But he said progress on sensitive issues had been slow and the talks would only become "more difficult and more complicated" with Japan's entry. Mr Biegun also pointed out that Ford had backed every free trade agreement the US ever negotiated, including a deal with South Korea that entered into force last year after some auto sector provisions were renegotiated by the Obama administration. "We're not coming at this lightly and we're not coming at it ideologically," Mr Biegun said. In the US we're the largest exporter of automobiles. So we are hugely invested in trade. We bring vehicles into the US. We ship vehicles out of the US. If the Obama administration failed to secure a deal with Japan on TPP that was satisfactory to the US automakers, it would mark a big split with a sector that has been supportive of the White House since its rescue of domestic car manufacturers during the financial crisis. Japanese carmakers have a very different perspective on the TPP talks, chastising what they see as "misunderstanding" about perceived barriers to the Japanese market. "Japan has zero auto tariffs and no restrictive customs or regulations only apply to imported vehicles," Ron Bookbinder, an executive with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, recently told a USTR hearing on TPP. Japanese carmakers have argued that US vehicles do not sell well in Japan because they are simply not small enough, to which US manufacturers retort that they have very good business in Europe, where many consumers also prefer smaller cars.