Category Archives: Trade Talks

  Takanori Okabe – Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam Many of the countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations said Japan’s list of tariff cut offers is insufficient and called for further market-opening measures, sources said Thursday, August 29. In the current round of TPP negotiations which started in Brunei on Thursday, August 22, Japan has by Wednesday, August 28, held one-on-one sessions with nine member countries concerning issues of market access including tariffs. Japanese negotiators reportedly presented their first batch of proposals to lower or eliminate tariffs on around 80 percent of total traded items within a certain time period, but did not include the five key agricultural products … Continue reading →

  The Japan Playwrights Association, the Japan Theatrical Producers Association and the Japan Theatre Arts Association has jointly issued an appeal, opposing the Japanese government’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. Referring to the TPP initiative in which the next round of negotiations is scheduled to start in Brunei on Thursday, August 22, the appeal expressed strong concern that controversial issues on intellectual property rights are negotiated without any public debating beforehand in Japan. It asked the government to hold open debate sessions for the public and parties concerned to discuss the issue of extending copyright protection from 50 years to 70 years. It also demanded that the clause … Continue reading →

  Protecting five key agricultural products from tariff elimination is the Japanese government’s fundamental policy regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday, August 20. In a meeting at the prime minister’s office with Yoshikazu Shimura, head of the agricultural cooperative group in Kanagawa Prefecture, Suga said the government will not allow tariff cuts without exceptions, adding that it will make the utmost effort to exempt the key products – rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar – from tariff elimination. As the TPP participants are scheduled to hold a new round of negotiations in Brunei starting on Thursday, August 22, Shimura asked … Continue reading →

  The Liberal Democratic Party’s Diet members opposing Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks held a meeting on Tuesday, August 6, to reaffirm their determination to protect five key agricultural products from tariff elimination. Lower House member Hiroshi Moriyama, who heads the group of 256 members, more than half of all the LDP Diet members, said they will definitely keep the promise they made with the Japanese people. Moriyama stressed that defending national interests means sticking to the resolutions adopted by the LDP and the committees of both houses of the Diet. The resolutions state that the government should be ready to pull out of the negotiations if … Continue reading →