Japanese media are reporting that their country’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiator, Akira Amari, has done a deal with Canada’s International Trade Minister Edward Fast to protect both countries’ dairy industries.
Reports say the ministers agreed to co-operate to maintain tariffs on imported dairy products. Twelve Pacific Rim countries are negotiating to reduce all tariffs between member states to zero by 2015. But Japan’s determination to keep import tariffs on five agricultural products and Canada’s ring fencing of the dairy industry are major irritants in the negotiations.
