TOKYO — Any trade agreement with the United States must account for declining Japanese rice consumption and shouldn’t increase its imports of farm produce significantly, said Agriculture Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Hayashi spoke in an interview in Tokyo as Economy Minister Akira Amari and Trade Representative Michael Froman held talks in the Japanese capital as they step up efforts to reach a bilateral deal before leaders of the two countries meet in Washington next week.
“We won’t make unnecessary concessions just to make it to various events such as the top-level meeting,” Hayashi, 54, said on Monday. “What matters is content.”
Rice, wheat, barley, beef, pork, dairy products, sugar and starch crops are considered politically sensitive products that have to be protected, according to Hiroshi Oe, Japan’s ambassador to 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Japanese farmers are a central constituency of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party.
“In Japan, the population is aging and falling,” said Hayashi. “Rice consumption will drop in the long-term. We need to negotiate while taking that trend into account.”
The U.S. and Japan are seeking an accord that would only take effect if incorporated into the TPP. Although all the governments must agree, the U.S. and Japan are by far the largest economies involved.
The U.S. is demanding that Japan should increase imports of its rice by 215,000 metric tons, of which 175,000 tons is for table rice and the remainder for food processing, national broadcaster NHK has reported.
For auto parts, Japan is demanding an immediate elimination of 2.5 percent tariffs on imports.
The participants in negotiations include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, making up roughly 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
The prospective members, which don’t include China, have missed a series of deadlines since the U.S. announced its participation in 2009.