Michael Green and Matthew Goodman, in their thoughtful comment on the "sayonara summit", lay out an important new agenda for "deeper US-Japanese integration" ("Why saying 'sayonara' is the hardest thing to do", June 27). But I would add two points, both reflecting current events and realities.

Resident Scholar Claude Barfield

First, while a US-Japanese Free Trade Agreement remains problematic, should the current US-Korean FTA negotiations prove successful, pressure will undoubtedly rise for Japan, defensively, to deflect the ensuing trade diversion by moving to reach a matching FTA with the US. As the two authors note, the influential Keidanren, Japan's main business association, thus far has taken no position on a US-Japan FTA; however, since the late 1990s, this organisation has repeatedly pushed the Japanese government to counter the discriminatory impact of FTAs around the world--and next to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the EU consolidation, a US-Korean FTA would have by far the largest impact on the Japanese economy.

Beyond this, there is the even larger question of the US-Japanese relationship in light of deepening east Asian integration. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), the single regional economic organisation that includes the US, is moribund as a trade liberalisation forum; its potential substitute, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Plus Three forum, excludes the US (and, significantly, Taiwan). Meanwhile, bilateral agreements are burgeoning around the region: in one count there are now some 50 FTAs that include east Asian economies. At some point soon it will be imperative to consolidate these inefficient "noodle bowl" agreements into a broader regional arrangement.

As Mr. Green and Mr. Goodman note, the US and Japan, as the world's biggest economies, have a strong interest in setting the pace for global standards in any regional consolidation. Thus, it would also add to the significance of the "sayonara" if the two leaders could at least signal their determination to explore the possibilities of a bilateral FTA if the negotiations with Korea are successful--and to work with the other nations of the region to integrate the narrow bilateral FTAs into a common regional framework.

Claude Barfield is a resident scholar and director of science and technology policies at AEI.