As the members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks speed up negotiations on tariffs, the Liberal Democratic Party decided to examine the effects of eliminating tariffs on 586 subdivided items of the five key agricultural products. The party said they will conduct the examination on the assumption that resolutions adopted by the party and the upper and lower houses of the Diet will be protected. The resolutions state that tariffs on the five products should be maintained, but there is a danger that the government might exploit the results of the examination in the negotiations. It is the party’s duty to prevent it. Koya Nishikawa, head of the LDP’s TPP panel who suggested the idea, must keep in mind that he is especially responsible for the task.
In the LDP’s meeting held on Thursday, October 10, Nishikawa explained that the party will conduct the examination in order to confirm the need to protect tariffs on the 586 items and urge the government not to make any concessions, as well as helping the government make well-grounded explanations to its counterparts. He also said the party needs to check whether there are items whose tariffs were abolished in the existing bilateral free trade agreements but need to be maintained in the TPP pact.
Nishikawa, who had been visiting Bali, Indonesia, where the meetings of TPP leaders and ministers were held, told reporters on Sunday, October 6, that it would not be possible for Japan to continue asserting that it will maintain tariffs on all of the 586 items, adding that Japan will have to consider whether it can leave out certain items from the list of untouchable import tariffs. He apparently modified his remarks after receiving various criticisms from other LDP members and the public, especially farmers.
Examination of subdivided items, however, is a double-edged sword. Major exporting countries like the United States, Australia and New Zealand are seeking immediate benefits of increased exports, and are highly likely to strengthen their pressure on Japan in the negotiations on tariffs. Other TPP members are also asking Japan to raise its percentage of items that will be tax-free. Meanwhile, the Japanese government is showing an overly ambitious attitude of siding with the U.S., which is trying to strike a deal by the year end in order to present visible results before the midterm elections scheduled next fall. This is why the government is trying to play up the results of the summit meeting, although difficulties remain in sensitive areas, including tariff eliminations, intellectual property protection rules and treatment of state-owned enterprises.
As the government rushes towards concluding the talks, there is a concern that it might allow trade liberalization of certain items in the five key agricultural products, if it judges that the damage of cutting tariffs on the items would be relatively small. Exporting countries of agricultural products will also use such items to open the way for further liberalization.
We demand that the LDP and the agricultural committees of the upper and lower houses of the Diet adopt a new resolution not to let the government change its negotiation policy by rephrasing the five key agricultural products with 586 subdivided items and make them subject to tariff abolishment.
(Oct. 12, 2013)