The 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative are planning to hold a ministerial meeting in mid-March, with Singapore emerging as a candidate host country, sources close to the negotiations said Sunday.
Prior to the meeting, the Japanese government has proposed sharply cutting its tariff on a certain amount of U.S pork over a 10-year period in talks with the United States on the Asia-Pacific free trade initiative, sources said.
Tokyo also proposed a safeguard system during ministerial-level negotiations with Washington in September, a measure which will be triggered if pork imports from the United States exceed a quota to be set, they said.
The lower tariff will be applied to the quota Japan plans to set based on the current level of pork imported from the United States, they said.
While the proposal is a sign of Japan’s concession in one of the trade areas involving politically sensitive farm products in talks on the TPP, sources say Washington may pressure Tokyo into setting the low-tariff quota at a level higher than Japan plans to allow.
Japan’s offer pertains to lower-priced pork imports, the sources said. Japan has proposed to incrementally cut its tariff of 482 yen (about $4) per kilogram for such pork from the United States to 50 yen over 10 years.
via Mainichi
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.
Alfonso Esparza
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Latest posts by Alfonso Esparza (see all)
- Market Rally Still Going Low Holiday Volumes Awaiting Start of 2020 - 27 December 2019
- Market Awaits China Retaliation on Trade - 29 November 2019
- Alibaba to Close Order Book Ahead of Huge IPO - 18 November 2019