Japanese farmers say their job is not easy these days, and it is getting harder when they are being kept in the dark regarding ongoing trade negotiations that could potentially put them out of business.
As Japanese and European leaders are seeking to reach a political agreement in a free trade deal early next month, there is a growing discontent among the Japanese farming community as well as the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), as the substance of the Japan-EU trade talks is still unavailable.
That prompted Japan’s foreign ministry to meet the press on June 20 to explain for the first time about the ongoing talks with the EU.
Yet, when asked about what has been proposed by both sides, government officials declined to go into details. The press conference only lasted 20 minutes.
Shinjiro Koizumi, who is seen a LDP’s rising star and director of the party’s powerful policy council on agriculture, has pointed out the problem: “The Japan-EU trade talks are being kept unduly secret to related parties, compared with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).”
During the TPP negotiating rounds, the government responded to criticisms of secrecy in trade talks, by holding briefings regularly with lobby groups and with ordinary citizens as well as producing a study to illustrating the potential economic gains and losses that could stem from the TPP.
In the Japan-EU negotiations, the government has so far not repeated such consultations.