SAKUYAMA Takumi    Department   Undergraduate School  , School of Agriculture    Position   Professor
Date	2015/05/08
Presentation Theme	TPP and Japanese Agriculture
Conference	20th Japanese-German Symposium: Agriculture and Food Supply - Challenges and Perspectives
Promoters	Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Bonn Office and German JSPS Alumni Association
Conference Type	Workshop/Symposium
Presentation Type	Speech (Invitation/Special)
Contribution Type	Individual
Invited	Invited
Venue	Potsdam University, Germany
Details	A Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is currently under negotiation to create a trading bloc among 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific. While its participants were initially New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and Brunei, they expanded subsequently to include the United States and Japan. A TPP seeks to be a '21st century trade agreement' with elimination of tariffs and comprehensive rules on goods, services and intellectual property, but it generates controversy in existing and potential entrants in the negotiations. Against this background, my presentation addresses the following questions: (i) why has the TPP succeeded in expanding despite the fact that its original members were all tiny countries? (ii) why is the participation to the TPP negotiations so controversial not only in Japan but also other countries? (iii) what will be the impacts of tariff elimination on Japanese food and agriculture under the TPP? (iv) what will be the prospect of concluding negotiations in the near term?