YOKOHAMA — With only a week left before the summit for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Yokohama, Japan has shown its eagerness to test the waters of a U.S.-backed multilateral Pacific free-trade agreement.
But Tokyo has a number of hurdles to jump before it can join the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement: It has to signal how committed it is to the accord and whether it is willing to drastically open its agricultural market.
Reflecting local sensitivities over the issue, especially from the farm sector, the government did not clearly state its stance in the basic FTA policy it set out Saturday, and only said that it will start approaching the countries involved in the talks.