More than six-dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday stood up for Japanese automakers as the manufactures battle their U.S. counterparts over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, whose administration is trying to wrap up negotiations on the pan-Pacific deal with Japan and 10 other countries this year, a bipartisan group of 78 members of Congress said Japanese carmakers are a major part of the U.S. manufacturing and business sectors. The congressional coalition, led by Representatives Pete Gallego (D-Texas) and Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.), noted that Japanese automakers have invested $47.1 billion in the United States, creating nearly 420,000 jobs.
Japan joined the TPP talks earlier this year, despite opposition from the U.S. automotive industry, which has expressed concerns about the country’s closed market. Demetrios Marantis said in a statement in April as the then acting U.S. trade representative that the United States had worked with Japan to ensure the country’s “readiness to meet the TPP’s high standards for liberalizing trade and investment, and to address specific bilateral issues of concern in the automotive and insurance sectors.”
Former Republican Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, president of American Automotive Policy Council, the lead lobbying group for Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Co. in Washington, D.C., said in a statement at the time that Japan’s admission to the talks “risks unraveling the entire free trade agreement.”
The lawmakers said in their letter that more growth in the U.S. economy can come through a TPP agreement that helps Japanese automakers.
“In order to further grow the U.S. economy and create new job opportunities, Congress and the Administration must continue to foster a business climate that promotes the United States as a premier location for global companies to build, sell and export their products,” the letter says.
The American Automotive Policy Council spent $170,000 during the first half of this year lobbying on issues that included the TPP, according to congressional records. During the first six months of 2013, lobbying expenses of $3.2 million for Chrysler, $3.3 million for Ford, and $5.2 million for GM also included work on the trade pact.
On the other side of the fight, Japan has paid Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld $370,000 during the first half of this year to lobby on the TPP, according to lobbying paperwork [PDF] filed with the U.S. Justice Department. During that period, lobbying expenses of $1.2 million for Honda North America Inc., $1.1 million for Nissan North America Inc., and $2.3 million for Toyota Motor North America Inc. included work concerning the trade agreement, too, congressional records show.
“We didn’t want the positive message of foreign direct investment to get lost in the debate,” Nunnelee said in a statement about the lawmakers’ letter.
