TPP is difficult Today I went to an English conversation circle in the morning. I told the others in my group that I studied about agriculture in university, one of the member asked me whether I am fo

Kaori

TPP is difficult Today I went to an English conversation circle in the morning. I told the others in my group that I studied about agriculture in university, one of the member asked me whether I am for or against TPP. It was hard for me to explain what I think about TPP in English... Do you know TPP in the first place? TPP is the abbreviation for Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is a treaty to remove the tariff wall, applied to any kinds of item, such as industrial products, agricultural products, and even to services like insurance. Only countries around Pacific Ocean (and a few Asian countries) are participating to meetings to make the contents of the treaty. If TPP is enforced, inexpensive goods (especially agricultural products) flow into Japan and our expenses on food would be pretty low. It is also said that export of Japanese high quality products would be increase. PM Abe is propelling TPP. He is saying Japan’s join to TPP would promote Japanese high-quality industry, and also high quality agriculture. But I don’t see like that. Due to Abe’s “Abenomics” policy and some other affairs, Japanese yen is relatively low now, but Japanese export is not increasing. I know the quality of Japanese vegetables and fruits are very high, but how many people want to eat them in spite of its price? (Even if the tariff was removed, it would be still very expensive due to the high Japanese labor cost and transport cost.) Not so many farmers will survive. (There are only small amount of agricultural subsidies in Japan, related to EU or USA.) I think relying our food supply to other country is dangerous in view of self defense. Whew! It took much time to write this short sentence. I found it difficult to write about unfamiliar category...

Jan 25, 2015 1:33 PM

Corrections · 3

TPP is difficult

TodayThis morning I went to an English conversation circle in the morning. I told the others in my group that I studied about agriculture in university, and one of the members asked me whether I am for or against the TPP. It was hard for me to explain what I think about the TPP in English...

Do you know about the TPP in the first place?
TPP is an abbreviation for Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is a treaty to remove the tariff wall, applied to any kinds of item, such as industrial products, agricultural products, and even to services like insurance. Only countries around the Pacific Ocean (and a few Asian countries) are participating to in meetings to draft make the contents of the treaty.
If the TPP is enforced, inexpensive goods (especially agricultural products) will flow into Japan and our food expenses on food would will be pretty low. It is also said that exports of Japanese high-quality products would be increase. PM Abe is propelling the TPP. He is saying that Japan’s joining to the TPP would promote Japanese high-quality industry, and also high-quality agriculture.

But I don’t see it like that. Due to Abe’s “Abenomics” policy and some other affairs, the Japanese yen is relatively low now, but Japanese exports is are not increasing. I know the quality of Japanese vegetables and fruits are very high, but how many people want to eat them in spite of theirits price? (Even if the tariff was removed, it would be still be very expensive due to the high Japanese labor cost and transport costs.) Not so many Very few farmers will survive. (There are only a small amount of agricultural subsidies in Japan, relativeed to the EU or USA.) I think relying our food supply to on another country for our food supply is dangerous in view from the viewpoint of self defense.

Whew! It took much time a long time to write this short sentence. I found it difficult to write about an unfamiliar category...