Is he bold or presumptuous? Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan promises accession talks on a trans-Pacific free trade zone. But Kan can reduce the extremely high protective tariffs for agriculture really?
Japan is facing a historic breakthrough in its free trade strategy. Massive resistance against the agricultural lobby has Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan today vowed to lead the country in the trans-Pacific Partnership Agreements (TPP). Kan wants to revive Japan's economy through liberalization. The TPP is currently being negotiated by nine American and Asian countries including the USA, and also requires a high degree of liberalization of agricultural imports, Japan has always been rejected.
has a first step, the Cabinet decided today to the taking of preliminary talks. At the APEC summit at the weekend Kan will introduce his plan. By June 2011, the government will then decide whether to begin formal negotiations.
Kan's plan is bold, because the resistance is as strong as the protective tariffs are high. For rice, the import tariff incredible 778 percent, 403 percent in beans, butter 360 percent, wheat 252 percent, and the pressure from the U.S. and Australia already quite highly liberalized beef imports after all, still 38.5 percent.
So far, the representatives of farmers in all political parties, any discussion about lowering the barrier stopped at the outset. But this time they are more vulnerable, because for the first time a prime minister has used his word for it, one of the last bastions of old is, protected by barriers of Japan to grind.
The fight with Accordingly, the gloves out. Publicly notify the agricultural representatives that a reduction in import duties erase the peasantry and sink Japan already low food self-sufficiency rate of 40 to 14 percent would leave. For the Japanese farmers could not produce competitive without the protection. 10 kg rice produced in Japan, namely cost currently 2450 yen, 10 kg of Californian rice 700 yen.
contact proponents of liberalization, however, that Japan's agriculture by their fragmentation into small farms is extremely inefficient and the impact of free trade through the side decades displaced soil and structural reforms could be collected. The average farm size is just one and a half football fields, and agricultural companies was commitment a few years ago prohibited.
The fight is interesting. I think that has struck the hour so that the reforms. For the fact is that farmers have literally run out of time. The bulk of the peasantry is already beyond retirement age. Many farmers will soon own their small fields can no longer order. But heir are in short supply because the small globules in most cases for a long time no family to feed more. Most of the farmers are therefore working part time in other professions reform. From a purely biological reasons, therefore, Japan's agriculture.
perfidy are the arguments: Consumers want gladly pay more for good products from Japan in the bag, the high quality of the food is worth it to them, was argued today in a talk show. But strangely enough, the farmer's friends do not dare to put their theory to a test to the test.
They probably fear that the consumers a bit of reform could be quite right, especially after this summer, which messed with too much sun and rain, the crops and drive the fruit and vegetable prices to extremely airy heights has . A head of cabbage 3.30 €, a € a tomato, a small cucumber 0.75 cents (prices from yesterday) - do such prices Japan also hurt. I wonder whether this, sales of vitamin pills is increasing, because people feel like the fruit flies.
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