Category Archives: Trade Talks

【News】 Ministry predicts price drop for 12 farm items due to Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (Oct. 30, 2015)

   Agriculture ministry’s impact analysis of TPP agreement The agriculture ministry announced on Thursday, Oct. 29, that 12 out of 21 agricultural items will face price declines affected by imports of low-priced products as a result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement. The ministry’s analysis of the agreement’s impact on products including rice, wheat, sugar and some vegetables and fruits indicates the government acknowledges that domestic producers of a wide range of items will be negatively affected by the agreement. The ministry classified the 21 items into three categories: rice, wheat and barley under the category of “unrestricted increase in imports unlikely”; 10 items such as starch under “limited impact … Continue reading

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【News】 69 percent feel Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement violates Diet resolutions: readers’ poll (Oct. 28, 2015)

  As much as 69 percent of The Japan Agricultural News readers who responded to a poll said Japan failed to keep the Diet resolutions calling for protection of key agricultural products in the broad agreement reached under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe maintains that Japanese negotiators “were able to obtain the best possible result from the perspective of Japan’s national interest” including the agriculture sector, but the result of the poll shows that farmers take it quite differently. The support rate for the Abe administration dropped to the record low level of 18 percent, and 59 percent said they don’t support him. The poll was … Continue reading

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【News】 Elimination of tariffs on oranges a complete surprise to Unshu oranges growers (Oct. 27, 2015)

Hiroko Obara Domestic mikan (Japanese tangerine) farmers are totally shocked at the announcement by the government to abolish tariffs on oranges and orange juice in line with the broad agreement reached under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. The news came as a complete surprise, as no reports had been made on the TPP negotiations over farm products other than five key sensitive items. Although domestic growers have been trying hard to produce high-quality products to cope with market liberalization, they say it will become difficult to compete with imported fruits just by differences in quality. The town of Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, is a major mikan growing region with numerous orchards … Continue reading

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【Editorial】 Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and regulatory reform – issues that could undermine national sovereignty (Oct. 23, 2015)

  The Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks have two major premises: elimination of tariffs on all items in principle and creation of high-level trade and investment rules. A broad agreement reached under the TPP has sent shock waves among farmers as it virtually meant total liberalization of the agriculture industry, but at the same time, the agreement on rules will influence other industries and people’s lives. In addition, Japan and the United States are expected to sign a bilateral agreement which states that the Japanese government will ask for opinions of foreign investors in conducting regulatory reform and make them subject to discussion at the Regulatory Reform Council. The final document … Continue reading

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【Interview】 Japan made too large concessions for the sake of reaching deal in TPP talks: farm policy expert (Oct. 7, 2015)

  Shinji Hattori, head of Kokusai-Nosei Kenkyusho (International Agricultural Policy Research Institute), criticized Japan for making too many concessions in the agricultural sector of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations, casting doubt over whether the TPP agreement would help boost domestic farming. The Japanese government was so eager to strike a broad agreement under the TPP scheme that it apparently failed to take a hard stance especially against the United States. As for the most controversial issue of rice, Japanese negotiators ended up allocating more import quota for U.S. rice than what was reported earlier. The negotiators should have held their ground until the last moment. The reason why they were … Continue reading

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