TPP talks to intensify, but no accord yet

@sangetsu03 - Totally supportive and routing for all farming cooperatives and their efforts to export products directly, TPP or not.

TPP has been 10 years or so in the making, it going to be a while yet before I can order Wagyu from our butcher (South London) without needing gas and air paying the bill.

Forget it Japan. Stop wasting America's time and focus on reforming your bloated LEACHING agricultural system.

It's better for all that Japan doesn't join TPP. It won't bring anything of worth to Japanese people. JA represents a lot of voting power and are dead set against Japan joining TPP. Farmers in Japan don't want their livelyhoods destroyed by loss of market protection nor do they want to be forced into growing genetically modified crops which have caused such widespread destruction of natural systems in the US. Bee colony collapse disorder is a major threat to vegetable & fruit farmers - and it's shocking the speed at which it has proliferated following the legalisation of GMO's in the US by the FDA. European countries banned GMO's, Russia has zero GMO's and the US wants Japan to become a producer. JA is right to be so vehemently against it

Nonsense. Japan needs to get it's economy growing again. The farming industry makes up only 1% of the economy in Japan, yet these tariffs and subsidies force the other 99% of the Japanese people to pay double the price for food which Europeans pay, and triple what Americans pay. This is a huge amount of money which could be used for people to buy things other than food, or to afford things like raising children.

The GMO argument is lunacy, and is entirely irrelevant. GMO food already exists in very country in every part of the world. The bees you mentioned have done a good job of transporting GMO pollen, and by the way, the bee die offs are caused by a type of parasite called Nosema Ceranae, and that bees exposed to fungicides and pesticides have decreased resistance to this bacteria. These same fungicides and pesticides are used in Japan. It is argued that GMO crops which require less use of fungicides or insecticides might be the solution to restoring the bee population.

JA is a powerful lobby which also controls the farmers, and now the national economy as well. JA has a monopoly on the purchase of many crops, and farmers have a hard time selling outside of this monopoly. Farmers are also "encouraged" to buy seeds, fertilizers, and insecticides from JA, who buys these products from places like Monsanto, Gargill, Bayer, etc. In other words, "superior" Japanese rice, fruits, and vegetables are grown using the same seeds, chemicals, and techniques used in "inferior" imported produce.

I know of a group of farmers who are trying to organize a group outside the JA bureaucracy, and they hope to sell and export their goods directly, without interference from JA, or having to line JA's pockets. They have already gotten a list of customers from other parts of Asia who are interested in buying their crops. Of course, this was planned when it was thought TPP was going to succeed. Now they may not bother,

I used to care about this a lot more. But the fact is is that elderly farmers are dropping like flies in my prefecture. My towns population decreased by 11 percent last year alone. It wont belong before there wont be any JA old timers left to care enough to keep up their fight. And besides the handful of government sponsored young farmers being forced into agriculture for lack of work to do, there will be no one to fill the shoes of the jijis. (god bless them). Then finally Ill be able to get my cheap beer! And rice wont be priced as if it was shipped in from Mars.

TTP should die. The "no regulation of capital flow" will destroy capitalism as we know it, and our lives. Just look what that did to US and Europe in 2007-2008. Fortunately, Japanese and Chinese did not buy into the toxic trash, so we were spared, and only got backwash of that US made disaster. Greed used to be one of seven deadly sins. Well, I guess there are no more sins. Unless you are gay, then watch out!

TPP has nothing to do with capital flow in the financial markets, it has to do with trade. The US cannot take all the blame for 2008, what about banks in Ireland and Iceland? Japan has had it's own experience creating financial crises, it still hasn't recovered from the burst of the "bubble economy" after more than two decades. It was a good idea that America and Europe didn't buy into Japanese "toxic trash" wasn't it? China right now is in the midst of creating it's own bubble and resulting crisis.

The rest of the long absent third arrow of Abenomics will have to be very very good to compensate for Japan's rejection of free trade. Abe needs to start sending the right messages to investors if he wants to keep his economy firmly on the rails.

Without TPP, there is no third arrow, and without budging on agriculture, there will be no TPP for Japan. When Japan entered TPP in 2013, the goals were clear, "the abolishment of all trade tariffs by 2015." But it looks like Japan misread this article, and interpreted it to mean "zero tariffs on all Japanese goods, but triple-digits on non-Japanese goods to remain fully in place." Without TPP, Abenomics has failed, enough said.

So boring reading about TPP; it's never going to work with Japan on board.

True that,

It's better for all that Japan doesn't join TPP. It won't bring anything of worth to Japanese people. JA represents a lot of voting power and are dead set against Japan joining TPP. Farmers in Japan don't want their livelyhoods destroyed by loss of market protection nor do they want to be forced into growing genetically modified crops which have caused such widespread destruction of natural systems in the US. Bee colony collapse disorder is a major threat to vegetable & fruit farmers - and it's shocking the speed at which it has proliferated following the legalisation of GMO's in the US by the FDA. European countries banned GMO's, Russia has zero GMO's and the US wants Japan to become a producer. JA is right to be so vehemently against it.

The rest of the long absent third arrow of Abenomics will have to be very very good to compensate for Japan's rejection of free trade. Abe needs to start sending the right messages to investors if he wants to keep his economy firmly on the rails.

So boring reading about TPP; it's never going to work with Japan on board.

“We have decided on a pathway of intensified engagement over the coming weeks on market access and rules,” they said in a statement.

In other words, all we agreed on at this meeting was to agree to disagree. But we hope more talks will make someone blink.

Japan should do more to open its markets, but focusing on (that) without getting the United States own house in order is like bailing water from one end of a boat while the other springs a large leak. The key to revitalizing America lies at home, not abroad.

TTP should die. The "no regulation of capital flow" will destroy capitalism as we know it, and our lives. Just look what that did to US and Europe in 2007-2008. Fortunately, Japanese and Chinese did not buy into the toxic trash, so we were spared, and only got backwash of that US made disaster. Greed used to be one of seven deadly sins. Well, I guess there are no more sins. Unless you are gay, then watch out!

“We have decided on a pathway of intensified engagement over the coming weeks on market access and rules,”

Good luck with market access and rule at next round meeting.

Talks are just talks and talks; without a final agreement signed by all the participating member countries, nothing would be accomplished in TPP.

I’d doubt there will be any significant progresses to be made at the next meeting when Japan has been trying deliberately to kill the time, waiting for a miracle to happen in Nov, (midterm elections of 2014 in the US).

80% of the deal is the US/Japan?, let the others flourish and let JP and US fight it out alone.