Detroit automakers are urging President Barack Obama to reject Japan's bid to join talks on a regional free trade agreement, the head of an automotive group representing GM, Ford and Chrysler said on Thursday.
"Adding Japan to the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations will lengthen those negotiations ... by years and perhaps keep them from ever coming to fruition," Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, told Reuters.
While Detroit automakers support Obama's goal of creating a free trade pact in the Asia Pacific, they do not believe U.S. negotiators can dismantle "non-tariff" measures Japan has long used to keep U.S. autos out of its market, said Blunt, a former Republican governor of Missouri whose father is a U.S. senator. (Reuters)
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