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| January 25, 2011 |
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| Protest Against TPP Participation |
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Prime Minister Kan is enthusiastic to join the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) initiative. The project is widely believed to lead the Japan’s agriculture sector and rural communities to an abyss. Premier declares to make a final decision by June. The initiative will not benefit at all on the side of working population. Let’s stage campaigns against the Kan government to renounce joining the TPP scheme.
LET’S ENHANCE SOCIAL OPINIONS TO REJECT TPP SCHEME!
Premier Kan stressed in the press conference held early January that Japan would open a new path in the 21st century by way of joining the TPP scheme. Premier advised emphatically his ministers in the first cabinet meeting given January 5 ‘to open the country more widely to the rest of the world’.
Subsequently, Premier Kan changed Minister of Economy and Industry in the recent reshuffling of the cabinet: Ohata Akihiro, who is cautious on the TPP issue, was replaced with a Premier’s follower, Kaieda Banri.
Premier’s Statement Undermined Negotiated Processes
The TPP framework, based on a 100% liberalized trade agreement, was designed in 2006 by Chile, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand in the talks at WTO (=World Trade Organization), though it was defunct in 2001. Canada, for instance, applied for membership, but that was rejected because the nation proposed to impose some conditions for importing dairy goods. The TPP operates on the entirely liberalized rules.
The United States is a member of the TPP scheme because it wants to control over the Asian market, which is the biggest in the world, with motivation to compete with China in the region. US is intended to commit in the FTAAP (=Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific) initiative.
Japan, however, has been in sharp conflict with this scheme: it insists on importance of multi-lateral function of agriculture and demands regulations and prohibition of export in the WTO talks in alliance with the EU countries. Meanwhile, US, Australia and Canada are called Cairns Group, which advocates a fully liberalized trade practice.
The recent statement of Premier Kan has shattered the processes which the government of Japan had negotiated. It is violent because it ignores realities of the working population in the agriculture and other industry sectors.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has studied possible impacts that the TPP may bring on the agriculture sector, rural communities and people’s livelihood. Estimated results will be: the food self-sufficiency rate will fall from 40% to 14% and production of rice, stock breeding and dairy farming will be damaged disastrously. The total agricultural output will decline from 8 trillion Yen down to 4.1 trillion, to a half.
Japan’s agriculture is vulnerable: majority of farmers are the elderly, 60% of whom are over 65 years old due to a lack of new comers, with only 1% of the newly (2011) celebrated 1.4 million 20-year-old youth engaging in farming, cultivated lands in the hilly regions are abandoned, some villages have disappeared and forests are not taken care of. If Japan joins the TPP initiative, the situation will certainly be worse. Agriculture and rural communities will be devastated in the accelerated manner.
TPP’s Objective – Profits for Big Business
Liberalization of agricultural products will bring evil effects: BSE (=bovine spongiform encephalopathy) contaminated beef and GM (=genetically modified) products may enter the domestic market, which may peril people’s life and health. The practice will deprive public benefits of agriculture and forestry, such as land preservation and environmental protection, which costs over 37 trillion Yen. In other words, the TPP initiative ensures profits to big export businesses at the expense of people.
However, the top political leader of the country advocates those who claim: Japan will be left alone unless it joins the project, everything will be solved if agriculture of Japan becomes stronger, or there will be no option except for participation, and etc. He is unaware of the seriousness of the issue.
Let’s encourage a social trend to reject the government’s TPP policy. Activities include:
(1) To organize study groups at workplaces and communities
(2) To present petitions to local assemblies (February Sessions) to adopt a resolution
(3) To join in solidarity the signature campaign launched by the National Association of Agricultural Cooperatives. The objective is to collect 10 million signatures.
(4) To stage protest campaigns with candidates of April local assembly elections, labor unions and consumer movement organizations, including a signature collection campaign and street appeals
To send protest messages to the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs via post card, FAX and e-mail
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