Negotiations for Agricultural Trade Liberalization and Consumers: The Case of WTO Doha Round

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the change of Japan’s negotiating strategy for the trade liberalization. Among various negotiations of trade liberalizations which Japan has involved, the most difficult issue has been agricultural liberalization. In the previous studies, this issue has been studied from the viewpoint of strong political influence of agricultural protection group, such as Nokyo (Japan Agricultural Cooperative), MAFF (Ministry of Agricultural, Forestry, and Fisheries), and LDP representatives (especially agricultural policy specialists).

However, as a result of electoral reform in 1994, Japanese farmers’ power has declined, and Japanese consumers’ political influence has increased. With this changing political circumstance, Japan’s agricultural negotiating strategy should change. These changes can’t be derived by framework of previous studies which focus on only producer. Therefore, this paper focuses on consumers which have been disregarded so far. Especially, this paper pays attention to the consumers’ concern for increased food risks as a result of liberalization. In the economic theory, consumers are presumed to support trade liberalization because they favored the price decline. However, in the countries like Japan which has already a liberalized agricultural market to certain degree, consumers have concerns also for liberalization risks such as food safety or food security, and thus the representatives and officials need to deal with these issues.

According to this framework, this paper takes agricultural negotiations in the WTO Doha Round as a case. In the negotiation process Japan cooperated with “friend countries” by using the universal concept of “multi-functionality of the agriculture” and appealed the maintenance of the agricultural various functions. Moreover, Japan’s negotiating proposal in 2000 emphasized that the multi-functionality was supported by the Japanese consumers. This proposal came from lessons in the Uruguay Round that Japan was criticized for having advocated food security only from the aspect of producers and it has little impacts on the negotiation. Japan’s strategy in the Doha Round succeeded to some extent as the concept of multi-functionality was included in the Doha ministerial declaration as “consideration to non-trade concerns of the agriculture”. Afterwards, Japan formed G10 with food importing countries and continued proposing its position with them. Especially, about food security, Japan proposed making concrete rules for the unilaterally export regulation of agricultural exporting country and it was reflected for the latest chairperson text.

Japan’s strategy still includes demands to protect agriculture, however, demands specialized to farmers have decreased considerably and it has been reflecting more consumer’s concern for the liberalization compared to before. Such changes of the strategy cannot be understood by only a producer centered conventional framework, and the framework focused on consumers’ risk as described in this article will become more important.