The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held a meeting of the “Headquarters for Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)” on June 16, chaired by Koya Nishikawa, one of the LDP’s key leaders for agricultural and trade policies.
A number of LDP’s Diet members attending the meeting shared a common comment that the field of agriculture must not be sacrificed by that of industry at the ongoing trade negotiations between Japan and the European Union.
Regarding a controversial agenda of automobile, the Japan-EU talk is deadlocked since Japan has been calling for elimination of EU’s current tariff of 10 percent on Japanese passenger cars as early as possible.
Meanwhile, Japan is urged to make large compromises in the field of agriculture, while the government has already used its bargaining chips at the past negotiations on automobile sales. Japan has almost eliminated tariffs of industrial goods including automobiles.
Councilor Tetsuro Nomura, representing a constituency of Kagoshima prefecture, criticized Japanese government’s failures in past trade negotiations on industrial products.
Councilor Nomura warned negotiators of the government not to make up for results of unfair deals in the field of industry with agricultural products, saying “Such negotiation stance is totally unacceptable.”
Itsunori Onodera, a member of the House of Councilors, with a constituency in Miyagi prefecture expressed his deep concerns about insufficient disclosure of information on the Japan-EU EPA talks, adding “We had been fully informed of the TPP negotiations in advance. We could share updated information with voters in our constituencies.”