Greetings,
"The Council on East Asian Community (CEAC) E-Letter" is delivered electronically bimonthly, free of charge, to readers in the world interested in Japanese thinking on an East Asian Community and other related international affairs by the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC), all-Japan intellectual platform for the study of an East Asian Community.
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ITO Kenichi
President, CEAC
"CEAC Commentary"
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"CEAC Commentary"presents views of members of CEAC on an East Asian Community and other related international affairs. The view expressed herein is the author's own and should not be attributed to CEAC.
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Japan Should Cooperate with U.S. on APEC
By OKAZAKI Hisahiko
President of the OKAZAKI Institute
Prior to the APEC summit meeting held in Singapore in November 2009, Kurt Tung, Acting Senior Official for APEC of U.S. Department of State and Wendy S.Cutler, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea and APEC Affairs of Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), testified on the situations of APEC at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, the Global Environment. The two testimonies provided little concrete details, and remained just a general statement on the past achievement of APEC as arena for useful discussions and proposals on the issues of trade, investment and environment, while they both emphasized that APEC is the only regional summit-level organization in which the U.S. as well as China and Taiwan participate.
Besides,the two testimonies stressed the importance of cooperation between APEC and G20. For instance, Tung stated that, with almost half of the G-20 being APEC members, the U.S. believes that APEC has an important role to play in supporting, reinforcing, and implementing G-20 principles for global economic recovery and future economic growth, and Cutler stated that APEC endorsed the G-20 pledge to extend through 2010 the commitment to refrain from raising new barriers to trade and investment in goods and services.
Referring to Japan as "our friend and ally," the testimonies welcomed the new Hatoyama administration's emphasis on transparency and looked forward to cooperation with Japan on such area as intellectual property protection. They also stated that APEC summit meeting, which Japan and the U.S. will host respectively in coming years, would also provide opportunities to strengthen the U.S. engagement with Japan's new government. In fact, when the U.S was offended by the China's proposal to establish a regional community in Asia, which was intended to exclude the U.S., Japan was said to have unofficially complained to the U.S. that it had come to give priority to NAFTA over APEC and had ceased to attend the latter, which the U.S. itself had helped to create. Eventually, the U.S. resumed its regular participation in APEC from 2005.
Though APEC has been so inactive that it has yielded little positive results and the testimonies referred only to its cooperation with G-20, the U.S. currently intends to get down seriously to the 2010 and 2011 meetings of APEC and to cooperate with the Government of Japan in making APEC more substantial. Japan should take advantage of this opportunity.
(This is the English translation of an article which originally appeared on the BBS "Hyakka-Somei" of CEAC on 9 November, 2009, and was posted on "CEAC Commentary" on 25 December, 2009.)
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For more views and opinions in the backnumber of "CEAC Commentary," the latest of which are as follows, please refer to:
http://www.ceac.jp/e/commentary/backnumber.html
No.59 Accelerating Exports to Asia is the Only Way to Regenerate Japanese Agriculture
by SHINDO Eiichi, Professor Emeritus of Tsukuba University
(31 October, 2009)
No.58 An East Asian Community and Advocates of "Koa-ron"
by YAMASHITA Eiji, Professor of Osaka City University
(31 August, 2009)
No.57 Some Reflections on Aborted Summit in Pattaya
by ISHIGAKI Yasuji, Delegate for Japan to AALCO and former Professor of Tokai University
(26 June, 2009)
No.56 China Makes a Step forward towards a RMB Currency Area
by MURASE Tetsuji, Professor of Ryukoku University
(22 April, 2009)
No.55 G-20 and APEC Go in Tandem; an Expected Synergy
by YAMAZAWA Ippei, Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University
(24 February, 2009)
"CEAC Updates"
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"CEAC Updates" introduces to you latest events, announcements and/or publications of CEAC.
Event
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The 35th Policy Plenary Meeting Held to Discuss "The Recent Development and Future Challenges in the Regional Cooperation in Politics and Security"
The 35th Policy Plenary Meeting of the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC) was held on 28 October, 2009 at the Conference Room of the Japan Forum on International Relations to discuss "The Recent Development and Future Challenges in the Regional Cooperation in Politics and Security." Dr. FUKUSHIMA Akiko, a member of CEAC and Senior Fellow of the Japan Foundation, made a keynote report, which was followed by an active exchange of views among members of CEAC.
For more, please refer to:
http://www.ceac.jp/e/policy-summary/035.html
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