politics

Japan TPP negotiator says some issues left for ministerial meet

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"Japan is prepared to increase its import quota for U.S. rice by 50,000 tonnes a year, around a quarter of the U.S. demand"

It will be interesting to see what happens to that rice. During Japan's rice crisis of the 90s, Japanese people put full bags Thai rice, which was specially brought in, in the garbage.

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“There are remaining issues which need political decisions at the end,” he told reporters.

But as to what exactly those issues were, he said not a word.

How can ANYTHING being negotiated in secret be any good?

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Why can't Japan refuse US rice? Japan is forced to buy US lumber too although Japan has lots of mountains and woods. And many many others are forced.

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It will be interesting to see what happens to that rice. During Japan's rice crisis of the 90s, Japanese people put full bags Thai rice, which was specially brought in, in the garbage.

What I'm wondering now is who's going to do the importing. Will it be high quality Japanese rice from small farmers, or is Mansanto already buying up rice fields in the States?

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tinawatanabeJul.

Why can't Japan refuse US rice? Japan is forced to buy US lumber too although Japan has lots of mountains and woods. And many many others are forced.

And so begins the Saturday morning nationalist hogwash built on ignorance of the facts and in defence of Japanese exceptionalism.

The US is not forcing Japan to buy US rice. In exchange for allowing Japan to retain 750% rice tariffs, Washington is urging Tokyo to increase imports of US rice under an exceptional imports quota.

The US has a lots of car factories, computer parts factories and household appliance factories... what's good enough for the goose, is good enough for the gander.

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It will be interesting to see what happens to that rice.

That will all depend on if the imported rice is identifiable as American. Believe Japan is already the number 1 market for American rice exports as it is, but that rice is almost all used in processed / commercially prepared foods and doesn't make it to the supermarket shelves.

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What Japan needs is expanded industry on all fronts, that means agriculture should be, minimally, protected and reformed so that is can compete globally. That is what the TPP is for, to force Japanese companies and industry to reform so as to be competitive internationally. However, this needs to be done incrementally, and slowly for some Japanese industries otherwise they could be completely overtaken by cheap foreign goods. To paraphrase: Abe's task is to wield the scalpel (TPP) and do the operation (Arrow#3 reform) on the patient (Japanese agriculture) in such a way that enough of the cancer is cut, but leaving enough of the healthy cells intact so that a healthy recovery is achievable. A perfect TPP that kills the patient is not desirable.

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Nobody is forcing the Japanese people to buy rice, lumber or anything else. All this does is get the government out of the way so they can buy whatever they choose.

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Japanese produced rice is very good, but there is also the exact same rice grown in California which is also high quality, its just farmed with larger tractors.. and its much cheaper... This being said I do think Japan should protect its farming sector as relying on massive foreign imports for food is dangerous and nations like China could threaten this trade in the future to get what they want....

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Why can't Japan refuse US rice? the same reason the US can refuse Japanese auto parts, car , electronics. at the end of the day the J gov can see that benifits of having tarriffs removed on J exports going to the US will far outweight the TPP imports of agriculture. almost there now. there are actually some smart J farmers who are already prepared for the added competition. but there are still many that expect to be treated like a welfare industry with there hands in the J taxpayers pockets

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I think a lot more people would be in favor of the TPP if it was more transparent.

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Aly Rustom,

I think a lot more people would be in favor of the TPP if it was more transparent.

It least if it wasn't so secretive and hidden, we would know what we were getting into.

I'm not suspicious by nature, but this TPP deal smells VERY fishy indeed!

I'd be interested to know what those ultra rich who would benefit from the TPP eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Surely not the genetically modified muck that Monsanto et al. give us.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Bertie. Preaching to the choir. Believe me.

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