Some 3,500 people held a protest rally in Tokyo on Wednesday, October 2, to call on the Japanese government to protect national interests in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks. The rally, sponsored by nine groups representing farmers and consumers, urged the government to retain tariffs on key agricultural products and to disclose information concerning the TPP negotiations. Toshie Yoshida, managing director of Iwate Prefectural Consumers’ Co-operative Union, expressed fear that tariff cuts would lead to a decline in Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate. “There is no way that a nation which cannot produce its own food asks (other countries) to offer safe food to eat,” Yoshida said. Yoshitsugu Kuroda, director of … Continue reading →

  Akira Banzai, head of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Zenchu), said the Japanese government should participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks with firm determination that it will withdraw from the negotiations if it cannot protect key agricultural products. In his remarks made in a protest rally against the TPP talks in Tokyo on Wednesday, October 3, Banzai said the government must make a clear pledge to the Japanese people that it will meet the resolutions adopted by the Liberal Democratic Party and the agricultural committees of the upper and lower houses of the Diet. Banzai stressed that the LDP’s resolution is a promise made between the … Continue reading →

  In last year’s general elections and in the Upper House election this summer, the Liberal Democratic Party has made a campaign pledge to retain tariffs on rice, wheat and barley, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar crops, and is assuming the reins of government together with our coalition ally New Komeito. We will stand firm to meet the pledge in the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact. We attach great importance to the resolutions adopted by the agricultural committees of both the lower and upper houses of the Diet. We declare that we will definitely protect the five key agricultural products and the national health insurance system. … Continue reading →

  A group of lawmakers and citizens opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks held a conference on Tuesday, October 1, to express concerns over the confidentiality of the ongoing negotiations. Attendants of the conference, including lawmakers from Malaysia, feared that the TPP negotiations led by the United States would proceed with priority on expanding economic benefits, resulting in wider gaps between the rich and the poor. They shared the view that it is necessary to ask the TPP member governments to disclose information on the negotiations to avoid the pact from harming each country’s national interests. Nurul Izzah Anwar, a member of the Malaysian Parliament from the People’s Justice Party, … Continue reading →

  Takanori Okabe – Bali, Indonesia 12 member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks will gear up negotiations to reach basic accord at the summit meeting scheduled in Bali on Tuesday, October 8, and pave the way for concluding the talks by the yearend. Chief negotiators are expected to hold meetings starting Tuesday, October 1, and ministers’ meeting is opted to start on Thursday, October 3, to discuss sensitive subjects that need political decisions. But Japanese government sources say the TPP members will only be able to reach agreement on less controversial fields. As for sensitive fields, such as market access including reduction and elimination of tariffs, the negotiators … Continue reading →