Japan cattle farmers fear US trade deal will be death knell

TOKYO: US and Japanese officials insist a hard-won bilateral trade deal will be a "win-win", but some Japanese cattle farmers fear the agreement could sound the death knell for their embattled sector.

Cattle farmers are already struggling to adjust to the terms of two major free trade deals inked by Japan in recent years – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and an agreement with the European Union.

Advertisement

Advertisement

But they fear the US trade deal will put much greater pressure on them.

"We were able to maintain a market for our products in competition with the TPP members, because our beef quality is good enough to compete, even if imported beef was cheaper," said Harumi Yoshikawa, an official in charge of livestock at an agricultural cooperative in Hokkaido.

"But American beef rivals ours in terms of quality and in that sense we are worried."

Akio Kawai, 61, who runs a ranch of some 4,300 beef cattle in Shikaoi town in northern Hokkaido, said: "Politicians are not thinking about us farmers at all."

Advertisement

Advertisement

He said he is determined to stay afloat "but others may think about quitting this business".

"Japanese beef may be delicious and offer a sense of safety to consumers, but US beef is absolutely cheaper, and that's attractive to some," Kawai said.

WORRIES FOR THE FUTURE

Under the deal announced in New York on Wednesday (Sep 25), Japan will eliminate or reduce tariffs on US$7.2 billion worth of US food and agricultural products.

Milk cow farmers fear they too will struggle, despite assurances of assistance from Japanese government officials.

The deal "will be a further blow to small cow farmers like us who keep just 30 to 50 cows," said one dairy and beef cattle farmer in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Various costs – the price of feed crops, salaries for workers – are already weighing on us, and this deal will be another factor to worry about in terms of the future of this business," he said.

"I wonder if many cow farmers, many of whom are ageing, will decide to quit the job," he added.

"And I wonder if it's right for Japan to lose these small-sized farmers … who are the majority of the Japanese farm industry."

Japan came to the negotiating table reluctantly, after President Donald Trump's administration withdrew from the TPP and threatened Tokyo's key auto sector with sanctions.

But Japanese experts question whether the country's negotiators have done enough to protect local farmers.

"Japan could have drawn more concessions from the US because it is Americans who withdrew from the TPP" and wanted more access, argued Akio Shibata, head of the Natural Resource Research Institute and former researcher for trading house Marubeni.

"Even if the levels of tariff cuts are same as those of the TPP, it will discourage Japanese farmers – who are already struggling to survive – from continuing their businesses," he said.

'CHEW ON CAR PARTS'

Manufacturing, including the auto industry, is seen as the main driver of Japan's economic growth, accounting fRead More – Source