Countries outraged | Japan wants to protect domestic food markets but be able to export to countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership
Canadian and other Pacific Rim pork players are exasperated with Japan.
The Canadian Pork Council and pork export associations from five other countries want Japan to halt its negotiations to enter the Trans Pacific Partnership if it is unwilling to drop strict import controls that stop many agricultural goods from entering the country.
“It is just not going to cut it,” CPC executive director Martin Rice said about rising anger toward Japan’s apparent unwillingness to moderate import restrictions during bilateral discussions with the United States.
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“There has to be a great deal of progress than what we’re hearing.”
U.S. and Japanese discussions about lowering import controls on many agricultural products have made little progress, American agriculture groups have been told, and the TPP talks are stalled while other nations wait for movement in the U.S.-Japan talks.
“We’re kind of stuck here,” said Rice.
Japan, which suffered from hunger during the Second World War and is vulnerable to food shortages because it is an island, has protected its farmers from cheaper imports by applying high tariffs and volume controls on products such as beef and pork.
Achieving a TPP agreement is a key priority for many countries around the Pacific, but agriculture exporters are adamant that Japan get no deals as part of an agreement for it to enter the TPP.
At the World Pork Expo in June, American pork export officials ex-pressed outrage at Japanese de-mands to be able to continue to protect its domestic food markets while being given access to American and other TPP-area markets for manufactured goods.
They said the U.S. should ask Japan to leave the talks if it wasn’t willing to drop its protections.
Rice said the mood of pork exporters has grown darker after months of talks going nowhere. The CPC and pork organizations from Chile, Australia, Mexico and the U.S. issued a public letter Sept. 8 demanding that Japan drop its protection demands and calling for it to pull out of TPP negotiations if it wouldn’t do so.
Japan’s market is lucrative, but Canada and other pork exporters worry other countries that join TPP talks in the future would demand the same concessions made to Japan.
“It would set a dangerous precedent for the expansion of the TPP when other nations are likely to demand a Japan-like deal,” the letter said.
Rice said a TPP agreement that doesn’t make meaningful gains won’t have achieved much for pork exporters and would confirm the ability of some countries to block access.
“There has to be a great deal of progress beyond what we’re hearing,” said Rice. “We all looked for it to do what the WTO process couldn’t, which was achieve significantly greater liberalization in trade.”
