Category Archives: Trade Talks

  Hirobumi Senbongi – Bali, Indonesia Koya Nishikawa, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s committee on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, told the leader of the New Zealand dairy industry on Monday, October 7, that Japan will not accept elimination of tariffs on dairy products. In a meeting with Malcolm Bailey, chairman of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, Nishikawa handed him the text of the resolutions adopted by the upper and lower houses of the Diet, which state that tariff cuts on key agricultural products cannot be accepted, including phase-outs over a period of more than ten years. “There are things which should be carefully taken care of in … Continue reading →

Some 3,500 people held a protest rally in Tokyo on Wednesday, October 2, to call on the Japanese government to protect national interests in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. The rally, sponsored by nine groups representing farmers and consumers, urged the government to retain tariffs on key agricultural products and to disclose information concerning the TPP negotiations. Toshie Yoshida, managing director of Iwate Prefectural Consumers’ Co-operative Union, expressed fear that tariff cuts would lead to a decline in Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate. “There is no way that a nation which cannot produce its own food asks (other countries) to offer safe food to eat,” Yoshida said. Yoshitsugu Kuroda, director of … Continue reading →

  Akira Banzai, head of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Zenchu), said the Japanese government should participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks with firm determination that it will withdraw from the negotiations if it cannot protect key agricultural products. In his remarks made in a protest rally against the TPP talks in Tokyo on Wednesday, October 3, Banzai said the government must make a clear pledge to the Japanese people that it will meet the resolutions adopted by the Liberal Democratic Party and the agricultural committees of the upper and lower houses of the Diet. Banzai stressed that the LDP’s resolution is a promise made between the … Continue reading →

  In last year’s general elections and in the Upper House election this summer, the Liberal Democratic Party has made a campaign pledge to retain tariffs on rice, wheat and barley, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar crops, and is assuming the reins of government together with our coalition ally New Komeito. We will stand firm to meet the pledge in the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact. We attach great importance to the resolutions adopted by the agricultural committees of both the lower and upper houses of the Diet. We declare that we will definitely protect the five key agricultural products and the national health insurance system. … Continue reading →