Protecting five key agricultural products from tariff elimination is the Japanese government’s fundamental policy regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday, August 20.
In a meeting at the prime minister’s office with Yoshikazu Shimura, head of the agricultural cooperative group in Kanagawa Prefecture, Suga said the government will not allow tariff cuts without exceptions, adding that it will make the utmost effort to exempt the key products – rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar – from tariff elimination.
As the TPP participants are scheduled to hold a new round of negotiations in Brunei starting on Thursday, August 22, Shimura asked Suga to make clear the government’s collective stance concerning the TPP negotiations.
(Aug. 21, 2013)