Six governors meet with Japanese officials in Des Moines

DES MOINES - Participants at the 2014 Midwest U.S.-Japan Association meeting got a heavy dose Monday of international goodwill, gubernatorial sales pitches and posturing from high-level negotiators working to hammer out a trade agreement in the Pacific region that all sides say would benefit Iowa.

Gov. Terry Branstad and governors from Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin made sales pitches to company executives from the U.S. and Japan who were among the more than 300 people who attended the association's 46th annual meeting.

Yuzaburo Mogi, Kikkoman Corp. Honorary CEO who served as the Japanese conference chairman, said Japan's economy is on the rebound and governors from U.S. states and several Japanese prefectures expressed optimism that economic ties will be even stronger in the future.

'What makes those things happen is trust and it starts at events like this,” said Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in discussing the importance of the relationship building that goes on when the association members gather to discuss the growth and progress between Japan and U.S. states in America's heartland.

Michael Beeman, acting assistant U.S. trade representative for Japan, Korea and APEC Affairs, told the group he was hopeful negotiations aimed at reaching an ambitious 21st century Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement will prove successful. He noted that last year Japan become one of the 11 countries engaged in talks with the United States aimed at enhancing trade the Asia-Pacific region.

'We are on the doorstep of something very, very historic,” Beeman said of a partnership designed to unlock opportunities for American workers, families, businesses, farmers, and ranchers by providing increased access to some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, especially in the agriculture area.

Beeman conceded that the issues left to resolve are the most difficult and challenging, but he predicted 'we can get there.”

H.E. Kenichiro Sasae, Japanese ambassador to the United States, said his government strongly supports the Midwest U.S.-Japan alliance as a cornerstone for peace and prosperity in the Pacific Rim region. He said there are mutual strategic, economic and cultural interests that need to be strengthened but he cautioned that a perfect trade agreement may exceed expectations in the current TPP negotiations.

'Japan is ready to go far beyond any previous free trade agreement,” he said.

Branstad said Iowa's ties to Japan were solidified in 1959 when the state shipped 39 hogs and corn to feed them to Japan after a typhoon knocked out the island's breeding stock. That led to a sister-state relationship with the Yamanichi prefecture in 1960 - an agreement that was expanded with two memorandums that were signed Monday.

While the focus Monday was cementing economic, cultural and educational ties, Pence said strategic ties also are increasingly important in a world where 'weakness arouses evil.”

'Japan is, without a doubt, America's most important ally in the Pacific,” the Indiana governor noted. 'And so we must acknowledge that a stronger military in Japan with broader capabilities, a stronger military in America will mean a stronger and safer free world.”