Japan, U.S. aim for TPP progress before summit

What dairy products are they protecting have you gone to the supermarket lately?

Do not mess with our health insurance.

haiyaiApr. 14, 2015 - 11:01AM JST

What dairy products are they protecting have you gone to the supermarket lately?

Yes, and for the last 20 years. The fact that sub standard domestic cheese is sold at luxury prices (the 'Japanese knife test' for defining what is or isn't defined as a cheese is classic mercantilist protectionism), that it's virtually impossible to get hold of any of the domestically tasteless butter in the last 2 months of any year and it costs double to buy any milk which hasn't had the all flavor boiled out of it, tells you oodles about how protected the Japanese domestic market is.

I said this 2 years ago and I will say it again, Japan's application to join the TPP is like the rest of abenomics, all smoke and mirrors and no substance, and will never happen under the LDP's watch.

TPP=US neo-imperialism. Biggest concern: NO restrictions can be placed on capital flows. So the next "great recession" implemented by Wall Street will destroy even more of the world. And we don't need US cars. Even the Americans don't want them.

So if you don't need US cars, don't buy them. The treaty is not about forcing people to buy things, it's about making them available.

This is not rocket science.

So if you don't need US cars, don't buy them. The treaty is not about forcing people to buy things, it's about making them available.

If US govt were so nice, Japan hadn't been suffered US's "Japan Bashing" for decades.

TravelingSales, The US car makers blame everyone but themselves. Have you ever seen a commercial or ad for a US car? There are US car dealerships here, but they don't even try. Don't feel sorry for them. They are a bunch of lazy boys.

So who needs TPP? Obama does because he needs to prove the pivot to Asia is something more than military enhancements and taps wealth to enrich America. Abe does to get American adherence to his anti-China stance.

JapanGalApr. 14, 2015 - 11:18AM JST

Do not mess with our health insurance.

Unfortunately, American Health Insurance companies already have cracked the market barriers with help of Japanese bureaucrats..They are laughing to banks. Japan is a cash caw market.

Many advanced cancer treatments of Japan are excluded from National health insurance. This is a beginning of erosion of health care system of Japan. By the way, I was in this industry for decades until recently retired. Be aware.

If US govt were so nice, Japan hadn't been suffered US's "Japan Bashing" for decades.

As usual, tina, I must LOL and wonder what you are talking about. The fact is the Japanese auto and electronics industries were built in large part due to their virtually free access to the U.S. market in the 60's and 70's. How does that even remotely resemble "Japan Bashing"?

jerseyboy, "Japan Bashing" by US is well known, which started in the '80's and still continues.

American Health Insurance companies already have cracked the market barriers

I recently renewed my life/health insurance policy and had to sign a paper declaring I was not a US citizen and was eligible to take out the said policy. What market barriers have the American health insurance companies cracked, if their own citizens are not able to take out insurance in Japan? (I don't remember ever having to say I wasn't American before, though that could just be my poor memory).

TPP benefits only the big corporatons. DEFEAT TPP.

to all the scaremongers, the TPP will be coming to Japan soon, and itll force those welfare sucking farmers to change there ways. enough of the 97% having to pay high prices for food just because the other 3% dont want to change there ways.

Japan has it's own shares of problem and they are hesitant on problems of TPP agreement. In less than five years, Japan goverment farm subsidies will be eliminated and most of these older farmers has to learn to survive on their own. I am not sure if the criticism of Japan is warranted for not importing enough agricutlural products. Japan already imports 60 percent of its food supply from other countries and food safety is a sensitive issue. By comparison, the U.S. imports about a tenth of its food supply and tests less than 1 percent of shipments. Sure, Japan could import cheaper California rice, but what about rural farmers in Japan that will no longer will be able compete and survive on farming. Then what? Bankrupt farmers will ask the goverment for more handouts. The J-goverment's future plans are that they are trying to maintain stability of farmers in their own country first.

My jury is still out on whether or not the TPP framework is a positive development or not. That being said, however, who ever let Japan in as a last minute party to negotiations needs their head read. You just have to look at the GATT experience to realize that Japan was never going to proactively participate in the liberalization of agricultural products. A more aggressive policy would have been to shut out Japan, put the framework in place, and then offered membership once everything was established and working.

If Americans wanted a glorified free trade agreement with Japan why don't they do it directly with Japan? Throw in the Aussies and Kiwis and a token Asian country like Singapore, with which the Americans already have a free trade agreement -- for what purpose who knows? And Canada, too.

What is the value of Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico -- with whom America already has an agreement?

TPP is bad news. The rich and powerful get richer and more powerful. For some bits of cheaper food, American pharmaceuticals with high prices and extended patents will make health care as uselessly expensive as in America. Corporations will take sovereign countries to arbitration to overturn legal norms. Race to the top for big corporations, trickle to the bottom for the rest of us.

Abe Shinzo sells out Japan for defense for Senkaku.

but what about rural farmers in Japan that will no longer will be able compete and survive on farming. Then what?

They will have to find a new way to make a living or get better at what they do.

Just like most other people who work in industries without protections.