Japan Press Weekly

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2011 October 12 - 18 [ECONOMY]

International forum opposing TPP held

On October 15 in Tokyo, together with farmers and citizens from South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, Japanese farmers held a forum seeking to establish food sovereignty and fair trade rules instead of free-trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement.

The forum, with about 150 participants attending, was organized by the National Federation of Farmers Movement (Nominren), the National Campaign for the Defense of People’s Food and Health (Shokkenren), and the world’s largest farmers’ movement group, La Via Campesina, in which Nominren takes part.

Referring to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the ratification of which is a major issue being debated in the Korean parliament, a Korean delegate said that the FTA gives a clear image of what happens when a nation enters the TPP. The delegate pointed out that once the FTA comes into effect, if the Korean government wants to use local agricultural products for school lunches as part of the effort to promote the “local production for local consumption” policy, the U.S. will criticize Korea for protectionism in violation of the FTA.

Delegates from Thailand and Indonesia said, “Free trade only benefits the top 1% of the people in the world. We need fair trade rules from which not only producers but also consumers can gain benefits.”

In the opening speech, Nominren President Shiraishi Jun’nichi said, “We will increase our efforts to make public the various harmful effects of the TPP and work with more people in a wide range of fields in order to stop the government move to enter into negotiations for the TPP.”