Excerpt: The United States on Friday welcomed Japan’s interest in joining negotiations on a regional free trade agreement among nine countries in the Asia Pacific but said Tokyo must be prepared to “meet high standard for liberalizing trade” to be allowed to join…. The National Foreign Trade Council, which represents big U.S. exporters like Boeing, Caterpillar and Microsoft, said Noda’s request to join the talks “potentially marks an historic change in the direction of Japan’s economy and that of the Asia-Pacific region.” But they said it was crucial that TPP negotiators finish the first phase of the negotiations “in months rather than years to jump-start the global economy.”http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/apec-japan-usa-idUSN1E7AA10L20111111
