Japan also had a national policy that rice should not be invaded by foreign countries. An example showing the basic policy in Japanese agriculture can be seen in the process of the TPP negotiations that began in March 2010. There was a conflict of interest between the United States and Japan in this negotiation process. Protecting agriculture with high tariffs, not only for rice and dairy farming, became the basis of our agricultural policy. In this TPP negotiation, the United States did not strongly demand a reduction in tariffs on Japanese dairy farming. The United States readily agreed to maintain high tariffs on dairy products such as butter.
There is a reason for agreeing to this high tariff. At that time, the United States was less competitive in dairy farming than New Zealand. The United States’ intention was to protect Japanese dairy farming and make a profit by exporting American soybeans and corn feed. As a result, livestock farming, such as livestock, pork, chicken, and eggs, became 100% dependent on the United States for feed. Japan imported grains for feed at zero tariffs. America was able to make a profit by exporting feed. Furthermore, they thought that if Japanese livestock products were kept at high prices and high tariffs were imposed on livestock products, the production activities of dairy farmers in Japan would be secured and American feed would be imported safely and reliably. Even though the TPP was an agreement to lower tariffs, America accepted the high tariffs. This was a situation that was beneficial to America at the time.
We imported corn from America without tariffs and used it as feed. However, if you look closely, you will see that the domestic retail price of corn has become twice the import price of corn. Japan’s feed industry was making 100% profit just by importing and handing it over to farmers. There has always been a big gap between the price of compound feed and the price of imported corn. As a result, a structure was created in which the people purchased expensive meat and dairy products. Times change. From the time when America thought it would be more profitable to have Japan engage in processed livestock farming, they began to shift in the direction of thinking that it would be better to export products such as beef. They thought that cheap American beef was more competitive than expensive Japanese beef. When considering President Trump’s tariff policy, it seems necessary to correctly grasp the changes in trade policy between Japan and the United States. In a sense, Japan seems to have a card in the form of tariffs on American agricultural products.
