Japanese farmers enjoy a 777.7% tariff on imported rice. Some say its a matter of national security. The new Trans Pacific Partnership would unhinge these tariffs in exchange for unfettered Japanese car and television exports… They should talk to the Indonesian farmers, Korean farmers, or even those European farmers whose livelihoods are protected by subsidies…
IWAMIZAWA, Japan — Atsushi Kono considers it the gravest threat to his family’s farm in a century of rice-growing: a free-trade initiative that could dismantle Japan’s sky-high protective farming tariffs, finally opening up the country to cheap, foreign produce. In a move pitting Japanese farmers against the nation’s export industries, Prime Minister Naoto Kan is pushing to join negotiations for an American-backed free-trade zone called the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would span the Pacific Rim.
The new zone would give Japanese exporters of cars, televisions and other manufactured goods greater access to the United States and other markets. But a trade agreement could dismantle the generous protections that have sustained Japanese farms for years — most notably, Japan’s 777.7 percent tariff on imported rice.