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Shinzo Abe of Japan Avoids Specifics in Speech on Trade Accord

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Japanese Premier Addresses Congress

Shinzo Abe, the first Japanese prime minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, offered condolences for American lives lost in World War II and spoke of Japan’s “remorse.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister: “My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal condolences to the souls of all American people that were lost during World War II.” SOUNDBITE (English) Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister: “Our actions brought suffering to the people - peoples in Asian countries. We must not avert our eyes from that.”

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Shinzo Abe, the first Japanese prime minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, offered condolences for American lives lost in World War II and spoke of Japan’s “remorse.”CreditCredit...Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Shinzo Abe, in the first address by a Japanese prime minister to a joint meeting of Congress, praised his nation’s “quantum leap” in economic reforms but offered no specific concessions as he appealed to skeptical lawmakers to back a far-reaching Pacific trade accord.

Mr. Abe faced a Congress deeply divided by President Obama’s drive to obtain fast-track negotiating authority to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan and 10 other nations on the Pacific Rim. Lawmakers in both parties have questioned Mr. Abe’s ability to open his nation’s agriculture and auto markets to American products, one of the biggest questions that remain in the trade talks.

And beyond promises, Mr. Abe did not offer concrete concessions. “Japan’s agriculture is at a crossroads. In order for it to survive, it has to change now,” he said, also citing advances in women’s rights and corporate governance.

But he leaned hardest on an appeal toward regional security and prosperity that could come from an accord linking nations from Japan and Australia to Canada and Chile.

“The T.P.P. goes far beyond just economic benefits. It is also about our security. Long-term, its strategic value is awesome. We should never forget that,” he said. “We must turn the area into a region for lasting peace and prosperity. That is for the sake of our children and our children’s children.”

The trade agenda is rising in importance for Mr. Abe and Mr. Obama as they consider their legacies, even as the obstacles to approval appear increasingly stubborn. Most Democrats remain resolutely opposed to granting their own president trade promotion authority, which is the ability to negotiate trade agreements that Congress could not amend. And Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican leader in charge of vote counting in the House, suggested Wednesday that he would not be able to pass the authority on Republican votes alone.

“We’re not seeing enough of a push from the administration for Democratic votes,” he said.

In a potential blow, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and an influential hard-line conservative, questioned the push for a quick vote on trade promotion authority, saying it was the wrong focus for a Republican Party trying to appeal to middle-class voters.

“We’re going to move heaven and earth to pass a trade bill, and give this president the authority to negotiate a trade deal after the last seven weeks when we’ve criticized him for the pathetic deal he got with Iran?” he said on Laura Ingraham’s conservative radio show. “How does that make sense politically? Forget about the policy for a second — just think about raw politics. How does that make sense?”

Mr. Abe also faced a surprisingly robust demand for broader recognition of the predations of Japanese forces during World War II, especially the forcing of Korean women to have sex with Japanese soldiers. Representative Michael M. Honda, Democrat of California, invited one of the few surviving “comfort women” to the House chamber for Mr. Abe’s speech. And Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, told supporters in California on Tuesday that he wanted to hear a more effusive apology from the Japanese leader.

Mr. Abe again was not specific.

“History is harsh. What is done cannot be undone,” he said, recounting a visit Wednesday to the World War II memorial in Washington before arriving at the Capitol. He added, “Our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries. We must not avert our eyes from that. I will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers in this regard.”

That harkened to previous apologies for forced sexual enslavement, an oblique reference but one that was heartening to some South Korean officials who have feared that Mr. Abe could backtrack from such statements.

But trade topped Mr. Abe’s appeal. Before his arrival in Washington, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and a proponent of the Pacific trade deal, implored Mr. Abe to offer real concessions.

“The country lays huge tariffs on American foodstuffs and erects all sorts of barriers to keep out American autos; some tariffs can exceed 700 percent,” he wrote in The Washington Post. “Japan lobbied hard to join the T.P.P. talks but still hasn’t committed to eliminating these barriers.”

The American automotive industry has demanded any trade accord specifically prohibit the manipulation of currency exchange rates, which Detroit says Japan does to lower the price of its auto exports and raise the cost of American imports.

But Mr. Abe offered no public concessions.

“The U.S. and Japan must take the lead. We must take the lead to build a market that is fair, dynamic, sustainable, and is also free from the arbitrary intentions of any nation,” he said. “In the Pacific market, we cannot overlook sweatshops or burdens on the environment. Nor can we simply allow free riders on intellectual property. No. Instead, we can spread our shared values around the world.”

The speech left Congress as divided as it was before Mr. Abe entered the chamber. Representative Pat Tiberi, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, said the prime minister’s emphasis on geopolitics and the Japan-United States alliance was politically wise. The leader could not be expected to offer up concessions in such a public setting, especially before Congress passes trade promotion authority, he said. With that authority, known as T.P.A., Japan will be assured that it cannot face a situation where its best offer is accepted by international negotiators, only to be amended by Congress.

“Obviously the Japanese are not going to put their best offer on the table until we have T.P.A. out there,” Mr. Tiberi said. “We’ve heard that over and over.”

But opponents were not assuaged.

“Japan’s Prime Minister Abe is right to fight for concluding the T.P.P., since the advantages for Japan appear to be great, while the benefits for the U.S. are still questionable,” said Leo W. Gerard, the international president of the United Steelworkers.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Abe Offers No Concessions to Lawmakers Wary of Pacific Trade Deal . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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