Agricultural News
Producers Groups Worried Comprehensive TPP Agreement Could Fail
Wed, 28 May 2014 15:21:33 CDT
U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers today joined USA Rice Federation, the National Pork Producers Council and the International Dairy Foods Association in the following statement on Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations:
Minister Amari's statement in Singapore that none of Japan's sensitive agricultural items will be fully liberalized may signal the end of hopes for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to become a truly comprehensive and forward-looking 21st Century agreement. A country cannot shield its primary agricultural products from competition and still claim to be committed to a high-standard agreement liberalizing essentially all goods.
When Japan joined the TPP negotiations, it agreed to "to pursue an agreement that is comprehensive and ambitious in all areas, eliminating tariffs and other barriers to trade and investment," as stated in the earlier (Nov. 12, 2011) TPP Trade Ministers' Report to Leaders. Yet according to several reports from the TPP Ministerial meeting just completed in Singapore, Japanese Minister of the Economy Akira Amari has now flatly told the other negotiating countries that Japan will not abolish tariffs in the five agricultural sectors it considers "sacred." Those five sectors include seven basic agricultural products, covering most of agricultural production: dairy, sugar, rice, beef, pork, wheat and barley. They also include many downstream products made from those seven items, such as flour and flour mixes made from wheat and rice.
The broad exemption that Japan is demanding will encourage other partner countries to withhold their sensitive sectors as well. The result would fall far short of a truly comprehensive agreement that would set a new standard for future trade agreements. In fact the TPP envisioned by Japan, if it stands, would be the least comprehensive agreement the U.S. has negotiated since the 21st Century began.
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