Government must keep its word to increase Japan's food self-sufficiency -- Akahata editorial, August 22The United States and the European union (EU) has reached a basic agreement on a joint plan for farm trade to be put to the coming new round of multilateral talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO). After this, chief WTO farm negotiator Stuart Harbinson will publish a new proposal on August 22 for the ministerial talks scheduled for September.
The U.S.-EU agreement includes no numerical target but accepts the U.S. call for limits to be set on tariffs, thus calling for further cuts in tariffs and export subsidies.
Heavy blow to Japan's agriculture
Japan is likely to be urged to lower tariffs to newly-set upper limits, even on such items as rice on which high-tariffs are allowed, or to increase its import under the minimum access requirement.
Japanese farmers were greatly shocked by the initial draft proposal which the chief WTO negotiator proposed last spring because it called for the 490 percent tariff on rice to be halved in the next five years. Imported rice can then be sold at 2,000 yen (17 dollars) per 10 kg while the price of domestic rice would be 4,000 yen on the market.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoelick at a news conference suggested that tariff rates should be between 100 and 200 percent at the most, saying that tariffs must not be so prohibitive as to increase the market price two to three times. If this U.S. request is accepted, Japan's rice farming system could collapse.
The minimum market access formula, which requires a country to guarantee a minimum opportunity for imports even though the farm product is not required by its people, is unreasonable. The Japanese government must move away from this formula by which farmers are forced to reduce rice paddy acreage so the government can fulfill its obligation on minimum access rice as a "guaranteed purchasing commitment".
As the farm trade talks are entering the final stage, we must make clear to the public what consequences the WTO Agricultural Agreement and the Liberal Democratic Party policy have brought to Japan's agriculture and society.
Agricultural imports rapidly increased, the domestic producers' price fell to incur deficits, and the rice paddy acreage stands at the smallest ever.
A survey by the Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers Group showed that many people in their forties and fifties, the mainstay of agriculture, have given up farming. It also shows that things are not rosy even with large-scale farming households. They cannot continue farming under a government agricultural policy that does not guarantee them the price that can pay for the cost of production.
In towns and villages where agriculture has been the main industry, regional economies are almost collapsing.
Consumers are concerned more than ever about food safety with many residual chemicals in imported farm products in excess of national standards.
The biggest worry is about the falling self-sufficiency rates in food.
We must call into question the statement by Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister Kamei Yoshiyuki that the U.S.-EU agreement has taken Japan's requests into consideration to a certain degree, while questioning the tariff ceiling and increased minimum access quota.
Safeguard Japan's food and farming
The Koizumi Cabinet maintains the basic policy of promoting the new round of WTO talks. It accepts free trade as a grand design and in its agricultural policy reduces production to go with the liberalized trade. This is why the Japanese government fails to stand firm in diplomatic negotiations.
It is clearly a mistake to treat food and agricultural products in the same way as industrial products. The WTO Agricultural Agreement needs to be revised to guarantee food production and safety that can satisfy the given conditions of the country.
The Japanese government's stated policy calls for food self-sufficiency to be raised. Not to make it an empty promise, the government must change its policy of liberalizing the agricultural market as a foregone conclusion and negotiate to safeguard food and agriculture for the people. (end)