FTA, EPA will destroy what remains of Japan's agriculture

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

FTA, EPA will destroy what remains of Japan's agriculture

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government under Prime Minister Kan Naoto has a plan to promote a future liberalization of agricultural imports through a free trade agreement (FTA) and an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the Pacific-rim countries, including such big agricultural exporters as Australia, the United States, Canada, and China.

However, if Japan joins in these agreements, rice production in Japan would decline by 90 percent, and the nation's food self-sufficiency rate would drop to 12 percent.

The government in a cabinet meeting on June 18 decided on a "new growth strategy." It states that the goal is to have FTAs and EPAs in the Asia-Pacific region, and with India and the European Union (EU) by 2020. The starting year of 2010 will launch a study of a Japan-U.S. EPA, promotion of negotiations on a Japan-Australia EPA, and a study of an FTA between Japan, China, and South Korea.

The government also sees the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference to be held in October-November in Yokohama City as providing a forum to set a milestone for creating a free trade area in Asia and the Pacific (FTAAP) by 2020.

The idea of a Japan-Australia FTA was introduced under the Liberal Democratic-Komei government, and the DPJ government is now engaged in its tenth negotiation meeting. Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya in a symposium of the Japan-Australia Economic Committee on June 7 conveyed his enthusiasm for concluding the treaty.

Behind the foreign minister's enthusiasm lies the pressure of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren). Nippon Keidanren on June 15, three days before the cabinet meeting, published a document entitled "For sustainable growth in the Asia-Pacific region." It calls for in deadlines for concluding treaties, the Japan-Australia EPA by 2012, and Japan-U.S. EPA by 2015, deadlines which did not appear in the government plan.

An FTA is a bilateral or multilateral treaty to principally abolish tariffs on agricultural and industrial products traded among the treaty members. An EPA is a treaty covering a far wider range of products and categories, including services and movements of people.

A trial calculation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries shows that if an EPA is concluded with Australia, wheat and sugar production in Japan would be almost totally destroyed, and half of milk products and beef presently produced in Japan would be eliminated. Food-processing and other related industries will suffer an enormous loss of over three trillion yen. If an Asia-Pacific FTA, which will cover almost all agricultural products including rice, soy beans, and fruit is implemented, it will mean an almost complete liberalization of the agricultural market as it will cover major agricultural exporters such as the United States, Canada, and China.

In the agriculture ministry's trial calculation made in 2007 on the possible effects on Japanese agriculture in the case of the abolition of tariffs and other national border measures, rice production will decline by 90 percent and dairy farming will decline by 88 percent. Japan's food self-sufficiency rate will drop to 12 percent from the present 41 percent.

The National Federation of Farmers Movement (Nominren) and the National Campaign for Defense of the People's Food and Health (Shokukenren) criticized the moves and stated that a revitalization of domestic agriculture and increasing food self-sufficiency would not be possible even if individual farming households are compensated (as called for by the DPJ) and a farming income stability system (LDP) is implemented. Various farmers' and citizens' movements are calling for policies that can guarantee food sovereignty because exclusive dependence on free trade cannot deal with instabilities in food production or increasing hunger worldwide due to abnormal climatic changes.

- Akahata, July 26, 2010