Ford’s top executive in Washington has delivered a stinging attack against Japanese economic policies ahead of the country’s entry into Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks next week, reflecting deep frustration from within the US car industry about the negotiations.
The remarks by Steve Biegun, the Washington-based vice-president for international governmental affairs at Ford, offer evidence of the complicated politics at work in the US over the TPP talks, which seek to liberalise trade among 12 Pacific Rim nations.
The big three Detroit-based carmakers and other US manufacturers who feel they are being damaged by what they see as Japan’s deliberate weakening of the yen could emerge as a hotbed of political opposition to the TPP and push their view in Congress. Their hackles have been raised by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s so-called “Abenomics” fiscal and monetary stimulus programme, which has prompted a sharp weakening in the yen’s value.