AAPC President Matt Blunt renewed calls for caution about allowing Japan to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The opening of another round of talks about the Trans-Pacific Partnership has American carmakers, which remain skeptical about the proposed partnership, renewing their pleas of caution and skepticism about the equitability of the deal.

The Detroit Three believe the partnership could give Japanese carmakers an unfair advantage if the Japanese government is allowed to continue manipulating the value of its currency to encourage an unfair trade practices.

The TPP would create a common market around the Pacific Rim, including North America, Australia and Southeast Asia is getting underway in Malaysia.

The talks include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States and Vietnam, representing about 40% of world trade and more than 750 million people.

Japan is now being allowed to participate while the Philippines, Thailand, Colombia and others have also expressed interest in joining.

President Obama has called approval of the TPP, which would reduce trade barriers among 11 nations circling the Pacific Rim, a top priority because he believes it will serve as a counterweight to the rising Chinese economic power throughout the Pacific.

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have generally favored trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and a proposed agreement with the European Union.

However, the industry’s lobbying group, the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), remains skeptical about the TPP and wary of its potential pitfalls. The group’s president, Matt Blunt, sounded the alarm of caution and concern prior to the opening of the current round of talks.

“As the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiating countries come together in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, it is imperative that they come to agreement on including strong and enforceable currency manipulation disciplines and the elimination of all barriers to automotive trade in the free-trade pact,” he said in a statement.

“The opening of new markets and spread of competition throughout the Pacific Rim will create thousands of jobs in communities throughout America and help spur our overall economic growth.

“TPP will be the largest free-trade agreement since NAFTA, but negotiators must take care to craft a high-standard agreement that will not allow Japan to continue its one-way trade practices.

“In particular, it is essential that the final agreement contains enforceable disciplines against currency manipulation – a policy Japan has used to effectively close of its domestic market to subsidize exports.”

Earlier this year, the Bloomberg news service reported that Toyota officials had estimated each one-yen decline against the dollar is worth about 35 billion yen – or $377 million – in operating profits. The yen-to-dollar exchange has been as low as 77-to-one in the last 12 months, but is now hovering around the 100-to-one market, which Japanese government and auto officials claim is ideal.

(Detroit makers use hearing to bash Japan. Click Here for more.)

Additionally, key executives from Asian automakers suggest the AAPC has already won major concessions from the Obama administration.

The so-called “Chicken Tax,” the 25% tariff on imported light-duty trucks remains firmly in place under the TPP, protecting the Detroit Three’s hold on the light-truck market, according to one source, who asked not to be identified.

The truck tariff has effectively blocked innovation in the pickup truck segment because foreign automakers see no way around the tax and have ceded the market to the Detroit Three.

(Click Here for more about Ford’s Mulally taking shots at Japan.)

The TPP is also facing opposition from unions and environmental groups concerned that the proposed trade pact could be used to void local regulations and restrictions on land use.