A bill for the TPP11 (a comprehensive and advanced Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement), a newer form of the trade agreement of TPP=Trans-Pacific Partnership from which the United States recently withdrew, was approved May 18 in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, winning the majority of ruling bloc. The bill was debated for only six hours and then sent to the Upper House. It will be enacted automatically within 30 days after passing the Lower House.

SOCIAL OPINIONS MUST BE STRENGTHENED TO IMPEDE FREE BEHAVIORS OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement allows multinational corporations to commit in every form of investment and trade actions as they want. The accord poses threats on Japan, because it might devastate environment, the healthcare system, food safety and agriculture, which leads to destruction of people’s living.

Government Ignores Food Security

The TPP11 project has following items:

(1)        ISDS (=investor-state dispute settlement ) clause, which threatens the existing judicial system,

(2)        Enlargement of business-oriented medical treatment practices, which may undermine the healthcare system,

(3)        Approval of use of fattening hormones in feed and deregulation in the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) inspections, the use of agricultural chemicals and the labeling rules of GM (genetically modified) food, which deprives safety of foodstuff,

(4)        Encouraged liberalization of agricultural products, the five items in particular (rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sweeteners), which may ruin Japanese agriculture,

(5)        Privatization of water supply, which may pose more serious risks, and

(6)        Intellectual property issue in terms of a patent period, which provoked cruel conflicts in the developing countries against the United States.

Furthermore, as for the TPP11, severe criticisms have been raised by Japanese farmers and agricultural organizations, who insist the initiative represents madness that denies foodstuff and environment of the world and ignores food security. Reasons are followings as it requests and brings about:

(1)        Increase of diary products import up to 70 thousand tons,

(2)        Enlargement of the established non-tariff import practice of staple rice from the United States (70 thousand tons) and Australia (8.4 thousand tons) and import of another 60 thousand tons of rice for processing,

(3)        Abolishment of the Seeds Act,

(4)        Enactment of the stock farming subsidy system on beef and pork,

(5)        Defects found in the launching norms for safeguard actions (emergency import restriction),

(6)        Destruction of the Agricultural Cooperatives in the name to reform agriculture and cooperatives,

(7)        Underestimation of the investigation budget (150 billion Yen) of TPP11 impacts on the Japanese agriculture, and,

(8)        The food self-sufficiency rate which has fallen to as low as 38%.

However, the ruling bloc and the government took advantage of their majority seats in the parliament in adopting the bill. They did not reply sincerely to the questions of the opposition party members, saying that debates had been fully held in the 2016 Diet sessions. They expect automatic legislation.

Japan-US Bilateral Trade Agreement

The framework of TPP11 allows renegotiation, if the 22 items related to the United States are frozen and the nation makes a decision to back to the initiative. Prime Minister Abe eagerly wants to let the US return and to escape bilateral negotiation, thus a parliamentary approval of the TPP11 is crucial to him. On the other hand, however, President Trump is to conclude a bilateral accord in order to correct trade imbalances with Japan.

The US administration says: ‘the US will not return to the TPP unless it works advantageous to the country’, ‘the automobile tax will be increased to 20% (currently 2.5%)’ and ‘tariffs are imposed on steel and aluminum and Japan is not exempted’. These announcements constitute conditions of the United States that wants to takes initiative in the scheduled bilateral trade talks starting in June.

The TPP11will severely damage farmers in the shorter term, and in the longer term, it will destroy people’s living in the areas of agriculture, environment, medical & healthcare services and local economies.

We must strengthen social opinions so that people could impede the TPP11-led liberalization practices which favor profits of multinational corporations of the United States and Japan. We should attain a society in which we can live safely with relief.

June 5, 2018