{UAH} OBAMA FAILS TO CLINCH JAPAN TRADE DEAL

Obama in Asia: US president fails to clinch Japan trade deal

Hopes of supporting pivot to Asia flounder after round-the-clock talks deadlocked over farm produce and cars

·        

·       theguardian.com, Friday 25 April 2014 05.42 BST

Barack Obama leaves Japan for South Korea on Friday after failing to clinch a trade deal. Photograph: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX

President Barack Obama wrapped up a state visit to Japan on Friday during which he assured America's ally that Washington would come to its defence, but failed to clinch a trade deal key his "pivot" to Asia and to prime minister Shinzo Abe's reforms.

Obama and Abe had been seeking to show a united front in the face of a rising China, but their success in putting recent strains behind them was partly marred by a failure to reach a trade deal seen as crucial to a broader regional pact.

That failure delayed a joint statement on security and economic ties until shortly before the US leader left for Seoul, the next stop on his week-long, four-nation Asian tour.

Obama and Abe had ordered their top aides to make a final push to reach a trade agreement after the leaders met on Thursday, but economy minister Akira Amari told reporters that gaps remained despite recent progress.

"This time we can't say there's a basic agreement," Amari told reporters after a second day of almost around-the-clock talks failed to settle differences over farm products and cars. "Overall, the gaps are steadily narrowing."

Seeking to put a positive spin on the trade front, the two sides said in their statement that they were committed to taking "bold steps" to reach a two-way deal, which would inject momentum into a delayed 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact.

A senior US trade official said the two sides had achieved a breakthrough on market access, but provided few details.

"There are still details to be worked out. There is still much work to be done ... We believe we do have a breakthrough in our bilateral negotiations," said the senior official accompanying Obama to South Korea.

The TPP is high on Abe's economic reform agenda and central to Obama's policy of expanding the US presence in Asia.

Obama on Thursday assured Japan that Washington was committed to coming to its defence, including of tiny isles at the heart of a row with China, but denied he had drawn any new "red line" and urged peaceful dialogue over the dispute.

Friday's joint statement echoed those comments and put in writing a long-held US stance that the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea are covered by a security treaty that obliges Washington to defend Japan.

Those comments drew a swift rebuke from Beijing, which also claims sovereignty over the Japanese-controlled islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese and Chinese patrol ships have been playing cat-and-mouse near the isles, and Washington is wary of being drawn into any clash.

"Extending the U.S.-Japan security treaty to those islands is both morally and legally wrong," the China Daily newspaper said in an editorial on Friday. "Obama should not expect Chinese connivance in his a blind eye to Japan's thievery and its claims of innocence."

 

            Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
           Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"