U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Japan on Wednesday, April 23, and hold a summit meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the following day. One of the main issues on the agenda is the treatment of tariffs on Japan’s key agricultural products in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. The United States continues to demand high-level market liberalization. We can never allow the government to make political decisions and largely compromise for the sake of reaching basic agreement. Farmers and citizens are holding protest rallies day after day in various places and asking the government to keep the resolutions approved by the Diet. Abe should meet Obama with a strong determination to protect Japan’s agriculture based on the Diet resolutions, as the government has the obligation to keep the pledge it has made with the Japanese people.
Prior to the summit meeting, Abe said that he hopes to send out a signal to the world together with Obama that the Japan-U.S. alliance is playing a leading role to contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Abe’s remarks indicate his intention to strengthen military alliance with the U.S. by revising the interpretation of the Constitution concerning the right to collective self-defense. As for economic issues, he appears to use the summit meeting as an opportunity to show the two nations’ willingness to make a progress in bilateral negotiations in an effort to conclude the TPP talks.
In a protest rally held by the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu) on Monday, April 21, in Tokyo, JA-Zenchu vice head Mitsuo Murakami stressed that Japan’s agriculture and rural villages must not be victimized for the sake of the Japan-U.S. alliance. It is quite natural to think that Japan’s food security, agriculture and lives should not be sacrificed for the interests of the Japan-U.S. alliance or for the benefits of the United States.
However, bilateral negotiations under the TPP talks have gone beyond the danger line, making the outcomes largely unpredictable. The two nations, hoping to show successful fruits of the summit meeting at home and abroad, are likely to hold a ministerial meeting on Wednesday, April 23, depending on the progress made in working-level negotiations, to seek a compromise until the last moment.
The U.S. will inevitably pressure Japan to cut tariffs on farm products, as it was reported that the U.S. Congress has submitted to Obama a letter calling for Japan’s elimination of tariffs on beef and pork. The Japanese government is frantically trying to deny reports that it would make compromises, but we must keep a strict watch, as “a last-minute political decision might be made,” according to Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Moreover, even if the two nations reached an agreement, the details would not be disclosed in the joint statement due to the confidentiality of the TPP negotiations. The two leaders would emphasize the results of the negotiations using such phrases like “a major progress” or “a broad agreement,” but the Diet and the Japanese people would not be able to evaluate the outcomes or make counterarguments.
If the government is really willing to keep the resolutions and pledges made by the Liberal Democratic Party and the Diet, it should disclose not only the outcomes of the bilateral negotiations, but also the draft text for the TPP agreement. In a democratic nation, it is natural for the text to go through the process of Diet discussions and public debate.
Farmers and consumers nationwide who worry about the outcomes of the TPP negotiations are holding their breath to see how the summit meeting will turn out. We should keep a cool head in evaluating the outcomes of the meeting without being succumbed to political rhetoric.
Again, we ask Abe to keep the resolutions. They are the promises made with the Japanese people. If the government thinks it cannot protect the sensitive agricultural products, the only way left to take is to withdraw from the negotiations. We urge Abe to hold the summit meeting with such strong determination.
(April 23, 2014)