Category Archives: Trade Talks

Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2014, which ended in March, was 39 percent on a calorific intake basis for the fifth consecutive year, the farm ministry announced Friday, Aug. 7. On a production value basis, the rate marked a record low of 64 percent, down 1 percentage point from the previous year, reflecting a decline in rice prices. In March, the government set its calorie-based food self-sufficiency target for fiscal 2025 at 45 percent in the revised basic plan for food, agriculture and rural areas. The target for the production value-based sufficiency rate was set at 73 percent. The latest data shows the government is facing a tough road … Continue reading →

  Trade ministers involved in the 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative are unlikely to meet again in the end of this month, as it would be difficult to solve conflicting points among the members, Akira Amari, minister in charge of the talks, indicated on Thursday, Aug. 6. “It would be safer to schedule a ministerial meeting following the negotiations to deal with remaining issues,” Amari told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to report on the prospects of the negotiations. He made the remarks apparently because of differences which are yet to be ironed out among member nations regarding such issues as market access to dairy goods, patent protections for … Continue reading →

  Akira Amari, minister in charge of the negotiations under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, has made it clear he thinks New Zealand was the key major stumbling block to a successful conclusion of the trade deal. After ministers failed to reach broad agreement in their meeting in Hawaii, Amari told reporters that a “certain country” was asking too much and urged the country to cool down, apparently targeting New Zealand which repeatedly pressed its demands for more dairy exports until the very end. As a matter of fact, Canada was the biggest matter of concern among negotiators before the ministerial meeting, as the administration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper … Continue reading →

  Ministers of the member nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative have failed to reach broad agreement during the latest meeting held in Hawaii, but bilateral negotiations have entered their final stage, except for the most controversial areas such as rice and dairy products. Japan is said to have accepted further market liberalization even for the five key farm products listed in the Diet resolution as subject to exemption from tariff elimination, and the move is highly likely to draw criticism as being contradictory to the resolution. In order to push the talks forward, Akira Amari, minister in charge of the TPP talks, held bilateral talks with his counterparts such … Continue reading →