China’s growing fishing disputes with other countries continue to make global headlines. The most recent confrontation occurred in early May, when 29 Chinese fishermen and three vessels were detained by North Korea for alleged “illegal fishing.” This incident is the latest in a string of clashes that China has had with its Asian neighbors sharing the same waters, including South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Escalating fishing conflicts are usually attributed to unsettled territorial and maritime disputes, such as those found in the South China Sea and the Diaoyu Islands (also known as the Senkaku Islands), but these conflicts are also deeply rooted in China’s worsening fishing crisis….
Japan, Nuclear Energy, and the TPP
By Arnie Saiki, May 28, 2012
A little over a year since the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced the shutdown of the last of the country’s 50 usable nuclear reactors. However, as the Mainichi Daily News reports, Japan will also be spending billions of dollars importing extra oil and gas to meet its energy demand, which will produce a projected 180-210 million additional tons of emissions this year. Read more
Press Event Urging Transparency in the TPP (Becky Moeller, Texas AFL-CIO)
Becky Moeller, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, calls for transparency in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during a May 8, 2012 press conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Addison, Texas, during the 12th TPP negotiating round. She helped deliver over 24,000 petition signatures to USTR that day urging them to release the text (followed later in the week by over 18,000 more).
Citizens Trade Campaign: “Coalition demands transparency in Trans-Pacific trade negotiations”
May 8, 2012
“Americans have a right to know what U.S. representatives are proposing in our names,” said Becky Moeller, president of the Texas AFL-CIO. “A major international agreement that’s expected to affect jobs, wages, the economy and more is far too important to allow to be negotiated behind-closed-doors without informed public input.” Read more
Daily News: “Korean Trade Minister Proclaims Interest In TPP, Even As Seoul Begins FTA Talks With China”
Monday, May 21, 2012
Daily News
Korean Trade Minister Proclaims Interest In TPP, Even As Seoul Begins FTA Talks With China
South Korea is interested in ultimately joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at a later date but in the meantime has launched trade negotiations with China and plans to work on a trilateral deal with China and Japan later this year, Korean Trade Minister Bark Taeho said last week.
“We have a strong interest in monitoring TPP and joining TPP later,” Bark said on May 16 during a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
He explained that while South Korea has trade deals with all current nine members of the TPP negotiations, the agreement still holds interest for Korean companies. “After TPP is formed, it is much more beneficial for Korean companies [than existing Korean FTAs] to join the TPP” because the Pacific trade pact will have integrated rules of origin and cumulation arrangements that allow better access to preferential tariffs, Bark said.
He added that having the U.S.-Korea FTA in place has not reduced Korea’s interest in the TPP. “We are not saying because of KORUS FTA we don’t need to join,” he said.
Bark described how Korea is now working on a trade deal with China, for which the two sides concluded their first round of trade negotiations on May 14 after announcing the launch of the talks in Beijing on May 2.
According to Bark, the importance of Korea signing a trade deal with China now is to ensure that it maintains a commercial foothold in the country as China tries to shift its economy away from being dependent on exports and more toward domestic consumption. Currently, most Korean trade to China is intra-firm, with Korean companies using China as an export platform, he explained.
He also pointed out that the leaders of Korea, China and Japan announced on May 13 they will launch trilateral free trade talks before the end of the year. He said that Japan wanted an earlier launch, which was not acceptable to Korea, which led to the compromise of starting negotiations for a trilateral deal this year.
Bark said that if a trilateral pact is reached between Korea, Japan and China, it could lead to a so-called “ASEAN Plus Three” deal, given that all three East Asian countries have separate trade agreements with the 10-member bloc of Southeast Asian nations. He expressed the hope that at some point this arrangement – whatever form it ultimately takes – could be stitched together with TPP.
“This East Asian movement and TPP will progress in parallel for the time being. And I think at a later stage … we will want to somehow [merge them],” Bark said. “Maybe in the future – not the near future.”
Bark said the Korea-China deal will be comprehensive but will protect sensitive areas. He noted that a joint statement he issued with Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming at the official announcement of their trade talks refers to deliberations by the two sides on how to address the sensitivities in these FTA negotiations.
To address sensitivities in the goods area, the two sides will establish separate tracks for “normal” and ”sensitive” items, according to the announcement. That sensitive track may include a “sensitive” and a “highly sensitive” category for goods, the statement said.
The ministers considered that potential ways to handle sensitivities include longer phaseout periods for tariffs, partial reductions, and exclusions, according to the statement.
The statement said that overall, liberalization of trade in goods and in services should go beyond each country’s commitments in the World Trade Organization, but does not mention agriculture at all. It added that on investment, the “level of ambition and coverage” will appropriately address issues related to bilateral investment flows “while taking into account the current and future investment related arrangements involving the two countries.”
The statement also said the deal will include measures to address how to handle products from so-called outward processing zones on the Korean peninsula, a reference to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a South Korean-operated factory park in North Korea that employs North Koreans.
The U.S.-Korea FTA included provisions that allow a committee to review the possibility of goods from such zones to enter the United States and be considered as of South Korean origin – measures that proved controversial in the run-up to the trade pact’s passage by the U.S. Congress (Inside U.S. Trade, July 1<http://insidetrade.com/Inside-US-Trade/Inside-U.S.-Trade-07/01/2011/draft-korea-bill-saa-break-no-new-ground-on-kaesong-criticisms/menu-id-710.html> <http://insidetrade.com/Inside-US-Trade/Inside-U.S.-Trade-07/01/2011/draft-korea-bill-saa-break-no-new-ground-on-kaesong-criticisms/menu-id-710.html>> ).
The United States maintains a trade embargo with North Korea.
Dallas Analysis
The twelfth major round of TPP negotiations is taking place at the Intercontinental Dallas Hotel in Addison, Texas, from May 8 to 18.
Public citizen events page
May 8, 2012-No Back Room Deals for the 1%, Press Event Demanding Transparency, Intercontinental Dallas
May 10, 2012-Global Activist Reception & Teach-In, The TPP Opening Bash, Community Center for Cooperation
May 12, 2012-”TPP: Out of the Shadows”, Rally and March for Good Jobs, Affordable Medicine & a Health Environment, Addison Circle Park
Flyer of events by Occupy Dallas
Facebook events
Texas Fair Trade Coalition webpage of Dallas events
