INTERVIEW: New Japan Minister Keen to Boost Farm Exports to EU

October 5, 2018

Tokyo- New Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Takamori Yoshikawa has expressed an eagerness to boost exports of farm products to the European Union on the back of an economic partnership agreement between Japan and the EU.

Japan can be aggressive in trade with the EU under the EPA, which is expected to take effect in the first half of next year at the earliest, Yoshikawa said in an interview, after assuming the post in a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.

At present, beef is the only livestock product that Japan can ship to the EU, with exports of such items as pork, eggs and dairy products not allowed.

"We can't export, for example, 'kasutera' cake containing eggs as an ingredient, but it's popular with Europeans," Yoshikawa said, adding, "We've already asked the EU to start accepting such products from Japan upon the effectuation of the EPA."

On Japan-U.S. negotiations on a trade agreement on goods, or TAG, that will likely start at the beginning of next year, Yoshikawa said that the United States should keep its word made at a recent bilateral summit.

A joint statement adopted at the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump in New York on Sept. 26 said, "For Japan, with regard to agricultural, forestry and fishery products, outcomes related to market access as reflected in Japan's previous economic partnership agreements constitute the maximum level."

Referring to this part of the statement, Yoshikawa said Japan issued a message that the country, in the TAG talks, will not agree to open its farm market wider than it promised under the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade deal, from which the United States has withdrawn.

Asked about bailout for dairy farmers in Hokkaido who were forced to discard raw milk due to a power failure caused by a strong earthquake that hit the northernmost Japan prefecture in early September, Yoshikawa said that the government is unable to directly compensate for the loss, but is considering substitute measures, such as helping the farmers reduce their milk disposal costs.

Describing farming as "hard work," Yoshikawa pointed to a need to make agriculture a growth industry to pave the way for higher incomes in order to secure sufficient labor in the sector.

"For instance, smart farming using robots would help reduce farmers' burdens," he said, adding that there will be more solutions.

On Tuesday, a committee of the so-called Washington Convention for the protection of endangered animals and plants urged Japan to take corrective measures, ruling that the country's catches of sei whales are not for research, but for commercial purposes, because meat from the sampled whales is sold on the market after research on the whale species' population and ecosystem.

"It's regrettable that Japan's claim that the sei whale catches are not for commercial purposes wasn't accepted by the committee," Yoshikawa said, showing an intention to consider corrective measures by February next year.

Noting that whaling is a delicate issue, Yoshikawa said, "I think that we're coming to a stage where we should seriously consider the future of whaling while analyzing information both at home and abroad." Jiji Press