TPP

[Zer0star 0]

All over the news this week, and for the last couple of months.

 

Looks like a big decision to be made this week. Will the Japanese government decide to join negotiations for the TPP?

Korea signing the FTA with America has made the decision clear I think. Japan has no choice but to join in. Whilst I understand there will be major reprecussions, they can't keep supporting inefficient farmers forever.

 

Opps, messing round with computers too much these days!

I'll try that again.

FTP = FTA = free trade agreement

 

TPP - trans-pacific-partnership - free trade agreement between Amercia, Japan, Aus, NZ and a few others.

Edited November 9, 2011 by Zer0star

[window-cleaner 0]

It might help if you post what TPP and FTP stand for....

[pie-eater 207]

Well, one of them is "File Transfer Protocol".

TTP might well be "Tai Poutini Polytechnic", but I'm not totally sure.

[igloo 3]

What was the percentage tax on imported rice?

Something wild like 700%?

[snowbender 3]

If I remember correctly the number is 778%

 

(exactly).

[RobBright 35]

Sod it, Japan should, nay, has to join.

 

Let's see how popular Japanese food stuff really is when put next to food at proper tariff free goods.

 

If Japanese rice is so good, and everyone wants to buy it, then there should be no worries for the farmers. Me? Am looking forward to getting some cheap basmati and long grain for curries and chillies respectively.

[grungy-gonads 54]

[[No relatives or friends in farming here? No. Check. Proceed.......]]

 

Sounds good to me!

[BagOfCrisps 24]

If I remember correctly the number is 778%

 

(exactly).

 

 

Seriously?

[NoFakie 45]

The way round it is drop the tariffs and pay subsidies instead. Even the US subsidizes farmers.

 

Apparently Toyota are talking about importing US made minivans into South Korea, so that's what we'll see more of if this isn't signed.

Perhaps JA should consider who will be left with 500 yen to pay for a kilo for rice in that situation.

[ippy 66]

my ex used to study in the UK (its how we met and is arguably the reason i came to japan in the first place). Her and her best mate (who i lived with, thus facilitating said hook up) wouldnt shut the hell up about how bad rice was in the UK and how expensive imported rice was (that, and how few varieties of mushrooms we have in the uk and how terrible and racist everyone is). The day japanese people give up their rice is the day chanukah is celebrated with a massive boneless piece of ham.

[grungy-gonads 54]

Press conference / announcement due at 8pm

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

So join negotiations it is.

 

I do consider food security important, so hope something can be worked out there.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

my ex used to study in the UK (its how we met and is arguably the reason i came to japan in the first place). Her and her best mate (who i lived with, thus facilitating said hook up) wouldnt shut the hell up about how bad rice was in the UK and how expensive imported rice was (that, and how few varieties of mushrooms we have in the uk and how terrible and racist everyone is). The day japanese people give up their rice is the day chanukah is celebrated with a massive boneless piece of ham.

 

 

I much prefer rice that we get at home to the sticky crap I get here. The price of tomatoes over here is ridiculous as well, my mrs couldn't believe how cheap a pack of 6 tomatoes were back home when I showed her.

[snowbender 3]

Not keen on the tomatoes here either.

Knobbly thin cucumbers as well.

What's with that then?

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I love the tomatoes here, a lot sweeter than back home....dunno whats up with the cucumbers.....look more like courgettes

[JA2340 16]

The way round it is drop the tariffs and pay subsidies instead. Even the US subsidizes farmers.

 

Apparently Toyota are talking about importing US made minivans into South Korea, so that's what we'll see more of if this isn't signed.

Perhaps JA should consider who will be left with 500 yen to pay for a kilo for rice in that situation.

Hey, !!! How did I get involved??

[kokodoko 67]

It would be nice to be able to afford rice when i am in Japan.

 

and it is all JA's fault.

 

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

So the paper is reporting this morning that the US wants Japan to abolish keijidousha as part of TPP negotiations, because US car companies don't make them.

 

Are they delusional? What drugs do I need to ingest to have that make sense?

[NoFakie 45]

Well said the USA!

 

K vans and K truck are all about tax breaks. There are no magic advantages to limiting engine size to 660cc. Some kei cars also cost nearly two million yen new on the road. They've plush seats, fancy satnavs and flash alloys. They're not all simple cars for the poor folks.

 

We've got a Pajero Mini and pay kei car tax on it, but it revs really high just to get to 60km/h. We've not had it on the highway, but god knows what the engine will sound like at 100km/h. High revs = high fuel consumption. Giving that car a tax break which a little 1000-1500cc eco car like a Vitz, Fit or March doesn't get is a complete joke.

 

Lower tax for fake beer like "happoshu" is also a trade barrier. Japanese companies only make it because it gets a tax break. Nobody would drink it if the tax were the same as real beer. In the long run, encouraging Japanese firms to make distorted products to satisfy arbitrary tax regulations is bad for the country. Japan's car makers should make the best possible cars they can, not some bizarre compromise that's 660cc and officially only a four-seater (hence four seatbelts?). Just as the brewers should brew good beer, not some weird and unwonderful beverage with an amount of malt decided by some berk of a bureaucrat.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

Whether keijidousha and happoushu make sense as categories is a reasonable discussion to have, but to claim they constitute trade barriers is ludicrous. There is nothing preventing an American car (beer) company from making keijidousha (happoushu).

 

And most keijidousha are cheap. Why reduce freedom of choice? Also, some people buy keijidousha because you don't need a parking permit for them. Would have to change that rule too if one got rid of them.

 

Now I could see changing the displacement rule to a fuel-economy one, or maybe a size or weight one. But I think the category does have its place.

[RobBright 35]

Well if the USA wants Japan to withdraw the Kei car, then Japan should get the USA to get rid of the tax breaks they the American manufacturers..

[NoFakie 45]

There is nothing preventing an American car (beer) company from making keijidousha (happoushu).

 

The cost of developing and manufacturing a new car to satisfy distorted regulations in a single overseas market is nothing?

 

There is no particular demand for cars specifically limited to 660cc and every other kei car rule (length=up to 3.4m, for example) outside Japan because its only Japan that gives that massive tax break. Suzuki make the Wagon R for India too, but the car length is too long to satisfy the Japanese kei regulations and the engine is 1000cc. That is, when there is no incentive to satisfy the kei regulations, the maker of the most popular one makes the car a different size. They do it because they are competing with other manufacturers who are not restricted by artibrary regulations set by bureaucrats. If the 660cc Wagon R was so wonderful, they wouldn't go to the expense of making a different model that is bigger and not even offering the 660cc one.

 

Here's a quote from the well-known Japanese green consumer site yasuienv from back in 2006. They always say the kei regulations are a stealth trade barrier left over from the days of import substitution.

 

毎回言うように、日本の軽は、異形の規格なのだ。こんな自動車を作ろうとする海外メーカーは無いようなバランスの悪い規格なのだ。わざとやっているのなら国土交通省も立派なものだが。そのために、もっとも重要な環境性能である燃費が犠牲にされている。

 

http://www.yasuienv....KeiShopping.htm

 

Removing the tax break on kei cars wouldn't affect anyone's freedom of choice. They would simply have the choice of buying a 660cc and 3.4m long and only four seatbelts (but allowed to carry three kids in the back) car on its merits, not because it gets an 75%+ tax break. Cars are the most important sector in the Japanese economy in terms of export earnings, so it is crap to encourage Japanese manufacturers to make illogical Japan-only small cars to satisfy regulations in Japan. Making Japan only products is what ruined Japan's mobile phone manufacturers remember. Ten years ago Japanese phones were the most hi-tech.

 

Likewise, if happoshu were taxed the same as beer and cost almost the same price, people could still buy it because they like the taste, not because it is artifically much cheaper than beer thanks to a big tax break.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

To me, a trade barrier should first be an explicit rule against foreign companies. To my mind, the US has much more of these than Japan does (particularly in the financial services arena), so is in no position to complain on that front without some severe introspection.

 

Beyond that, there are second-order effects of tax laws that were originally intended to promote legitimate domestic economic agendas, but have become outdated. As I suggested, the keijidousha rules may fall under this category; one could, for example, replace the engine displacement limits with something based on fuel efficiency, or the size limits with something else based on expected available parking space, or some other weight limit to determine road maintenance taxes. But, none of these discriminate against foreign companies specifically. In fact, some Japanese companies have found it not worth their while to compete in this category. There is nothing in the rules which explicitly discriminates against foreign companies offering exactly the same product. First show me good faith in eliminating rules explicitly based on jurisdiction (on the US's, Japan's, or any other nation's side) before asking me to care about such second-order effects.