Cabinet to declare stance on trans-Pacific FTA on Nov. 9
Kyodo News | Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010
Cabinet to declare stance on trans-Pacific FTA on Nov. 9
Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s Cabinet will adopt on Nov. 9 a basic policy on free trade, including its stance on a U.S.-backed trans-Pacific free-trade agreement, national policy minister Koichiro Genba said Tuesday.
Ministers will meet Friday to fine-tune their positions, Genba said. The main focus of the planned policy is whether Japan will join the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, known as TPP.
The TPP talks, which will be built on a regional FTA that took effect in 2006 involving Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, are under way between those four nations and the United States, Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Peru.
The issue of whether Japan should join has recently emerged in domestic discussions ahead of the Nov. 13-14 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Yokohama.
As the TPP in principle requires members to eliminate all tariffs, including those on agricultural produce, not only the nation’s farming industry but also members of the ruling bloc have voiced objections about joining the talks.
To deal with the accord’s impact on the heavily protected farm sector, the government is looking to establish a task force on agricultural reform headed by Kan, government sources said.
The task force will try to strengthen the international competitiveness of the agricultural sector to respond to the promotion of trade liberalization pacts such as the TPP.
