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.
Akira Banzai, head of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, gives remarks to the participants of the protest rally against the TPP pact.
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 ruling party and the Japanese people, and the committees’ resolutions represent intentions of the Diet which is the highest authority of national sovereignty. “They are prerequisites to the government’s participation in the TPP negotiations, which should definitely be realized,” Banzai said.
Referring to some Japanese media reports that the government may abolish tariffs on some of the key agricultural products, Banzai said he cannot help having doubts that the government is paving the way for gradual compromising, warning that the government may be trying to mislead the public.
He also expressed concern over the fact that the government has not explained its negotiation policies to the public and stakeholders. He said he cannot accept such an ambiguous stance by the government, adding that it is unnecessarily inflaming public anxiety over the TPP’s effects on food safety, medical services and insurance.
(Oct. 3, 2013)