Category Archives: Trade Talks

  A group of lawmakers and citizens opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks held a conference on Tuesday, October 1, to express concerns over the confidentiality of the ongoing negotiations. Attendants of the conference, including lawmakers from Malaysia, feared that the TPP negotiations led by the United States would proceed with priority on expanding economic benefits, resulting in wider gaps between the rich and the poor. They shared the view that it is necessary to ask the TPP member governments to disclose information on the negotiations to avoid the pact from harming each country’s national interests. Nurul Izzah Anwar, a member of the Malaysian Parliament from the People’s Justice Party, … Continue reading →

  Takanori Okabe – Bali, Indonesia 12 member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks will gear up negotiations to reach basic accord at the summit meeting scheduled in Bali on Tuesday, October 8, and pave the way for concluding the talks by the yearend. Chief negotiators are expected to hold meetings starting Tuesday, October 1, and ministers’ meeting is opted to start on Thursday, October 3, to discuss sensitive subjects that need political decisions. But Japanese government sources say the TPP members will only be able to reach agreement on less controversial fields. As for sensitive fields, such as market access including reduction and elimination of tariffs, the negotiators … Continue reading →

  The delegation of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-Zenchu), which is visiting Canada headed by JA-Zenchu Vice President Toshiaki Tobita, met Canadian government officials in charge of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations on Tuesday, September 17. In a meeting with the delegation, Tina Namiesniowski, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Canadian government’s Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, said the Canadian negotiators of the TPP pact will protect the nation’s supply management systems, in which the government controls domestic production and restricts imports of key agricultural products, according to JA-Zenchu officials. All the political parties in Canada support the systems, and Canadian negotiators of the TPP talks must not make … Continue reading →

  The delegation of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-Zenchu) to Canada, headed by JA-Zenchu Vice President Toshiaki Tobita, met with President Ron Bonnett of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the country’s largest farmers’ organization, on Monday, September 16. The JA-Zenchu delegation is visiting Canada to gather information on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations.In the meeting, JA-Zenchu and the Canadian federation reconfirmed the importance of protecting various forms of agriculture in each country when liberalizing trade systems. They agreed to continue urging each of their countries’ governments to adhere to their policy of keeping tariffs on key agricultural products in the TPP negotiations. According to JA-Zenchu officials, Bonnett stressed … Continue reading →