Tom Whitson
ACCJ President
twhitson@accj.or.jp
ACCJ’s CSR activities have grown since we set up the Community Service Fund after the Kobe Earthquake. The activities of each ACCJ Chapter reflect well on how we act on our corporate values and contribute to the communities that make our businesses possible. On May 23rd we kicked off the “charity and health” Chubu Walkathon. Smaller walkathons will follow in Tokyo (September 12) and in Kobe (October 17). These events involve our local government contacts and are a great way to get out and show a good ACCJ face to our Japanese neighbors.
Just before Golden Week, an ACCJ delegation visited Washington D.C. for our annual D.C. Doorknock. We reworked our presentation materials to focus on issues that would resonate with: 1) elected officials with a peripheral interest in trade matters, and 2) others who have a good understanding of Japan-U.S. issues. Perhaps because of the new DPJ government, the Futenma re-assessment, and the Toyota recalls, Washingtonians seemed much more interested in Japan than they appeared to be last year. We were fortunate to meet Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Senators Inoue and Webb, and State Department Japan Desk Joe Donovan, among others.
I wish that I felt confident that Washington was as committed as the ACCJ is to: 1) free market principles, 2) level playing fields, and 3) transparent and fair regulatory processes. We made the point that the President’s National Export Initiative was very welcome, but that we believe passing free trade agreements and active U.S. participation in emerging Asian trade architectures will do a lot to help the U.S. achieve its goal of doubling exports in 5 years. The most knowledgeable people we spoke with in Washington were unanimous in agreeing that free trade agreements would significantly benefit the U.S. economy, but no one believed that Congress would pass the Korean, Colombian or Panama FTAs any time soon. Everyone was in favor of trade, but one person went so far as to inform us that there are people in Washington who believe that exports are good, but trade is somehow not necessarily good.
Part of our key message is that the U.S.-Japan trade pattern features two sophisticated economies trading complex high value goods and services with each other. It is important to remember that the U.S. has a significant positive trade balance in services with Japan and that we have key medical and high tech product areas where U.S. companies have enviable market shares in Japan.
There is significant interest in our involvement in APEC and our issues paper. We will be following up with our D.C. contacts on our APEC activities this year and we were asked to coordinate with certain U.S. groups who will be involved with APEC in 2011. In Japan, our preparation and willingness to engage other business and government organizations to help make APEC a success has increased our profile and should result in more opportunities for our member companies to engage with other Japanese groups where our interests are aligned.
Our advocacy work this year has smoothly folded into our Diet Doorknock, our D.C. Doorknock, our APEC Task Force activities, our Growth Strategy Initiative, and our Global Financial Center project. I very much appreciate the efforts of the ACCJ committees, individuals, and companies that have supported our activities to improve the business environment in Japan for our ACCJ member companies.
