| As multilateral trade negotiations under WTO has had a hard time, regional trade is becoming more and more popular. Under the influence of international environment and other facts,40 years after Japan insisted multilateral trade, Japan began to negotiate FTA/EPA with relevant countries in the late 1990s. In comparison with its powerful industry, Japanese agriculture is weak. The government has been protecting agriculture from competing with other countries through both domestic and border measures. During multilateral negotiations, Japan refused to reduce protection policy for agriculture at a cost of offending some important companies. In the Uruguay round of GATT, for example, Japan insisted on self-sufficiency of rice and objected to rice tariffication. Japan's inflexible stance almost resulted in its failure to final agreement. Agriculture is Japan's biggest constraint on moving forward on FTAs. It goes without saying how difficult it is while negotiating agricultural products in FTA/EPA. In view of that, Japan came up with many methods to solve the problem. First, Japan chose Singapore as the first partner because Singapore almost exports no agricultural products. It is easier for Japan to exclude all agricultural products. In this way, Japan was able to build a templet which can be used in FTA/EPA with other countries. However, it is useless for agricultural products exporter such as Mexico, Thailand, Australia and so on. The second method is created. Japan has used a variety of mechanisms to limit extent of agricultural concessions'including outright exclusions, renegotiations, and tariff rate quotas, aid'. Finally, when Japan was negotiating with Australia, a new'food safe' strategy was created.The paper contains five parts. The first part looks back the history of Japanese agricultural protection under multilateral trade system. On the other hand, this part shows us how Japan protect its agriculture at present situation. Before the Uruguay Round began, agriculture had been excluded from GATT. Every country made his agricultural policy according to his own profit without thinking of other countries. There wasn't any constraint between countries. As a result, conflicts between countries who trade arose. It is necessary, therefore, for GATT members to form a constraint between themselves. The negotiation aims to open agricultural products market by reduce agricultural tariff. It cost 8 years to achieve an important agreement. As one of GATT members, Japan took part in the negotiation in 1986. The new agreement would be carried on in 1995. For developed country, the perform period is five years. Then the Doha Round began to form new agreement. Therefore, the paper divides the part into three periods. The second part provides us how Japan deal with agricultural products trade in FTA/EPA. As is mentioned, Japan uses a a variety of mechanisms to limit extent of agricultural concessions. For different countries, the strategy is different. The third part gives an analysis why Japan protects its agriculture so deeply. There are several factors. The paper demonstrates them in the aspect of history, culture, agriculture condition and political economy. The forth part is an expectation on Japanese agriculture liberalization in the future FTA/EPA. Although there are a lot of blocks for Japan to reform agriculture, it is a trend to liberalise its agriculture sector because it is beneficial for Japanese long development. For Japan, it is definite agriculture can be promoted through FTA/EPA. The last part is the conclusion. |
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