the background of FTA and the promotion of it in Japan (Final)

So far, I have talked about the background of FTA, so now I’m going to explain how the negative attitude changed to the promotion of the FTA, what the power that led Japan to the FTA promotion was, and how the obstacle to the FTA promotion was removed.

 People who concern with agriculture and the farmer's complaint against the FTA promotion.

In a flow of global FTA promotion, while China moved to FTA promotion, a voice that “Don’t fall behind FTA competition” extended to a bureaucrat, a scholar, mass communication, and the financier widely in Japan. Since the voice came to be taken up in Japanese politics, in spite of fact in which the industries did not promote FTA positively, a flow of the FTA promotion was completed. People who concerned with agriculture were negative attitude against FTA promotion at first, but for fear of leading to the agriculture reform that the prime minister and ruling party executives lead, which rouses the public opinion, people who concerned with agriculture accepted the FTA promotion while securing a condition to be able to link the FTA in which the bad influence does not extend to the sensitive item such as Japanese rice. However, it follows that the condition torments FTA ratification.

Stages of economic integration around the World:
(each country colored according to the most advanced agreement that it participates into.)

  Economic and Monetary Union (CSME/EC$, EU/€)

  Economic union (CSME, EU)

  Customs and monetary union (CEMAC/franc, UEMOA/franc)

  Common market (EEA, EFTA)

  Customs union (CAN, CUBKR, EAC, EUCU, MERCOSUR, SACU)

  Multilateral Free Trade Area (AFTA, CEFTA, COMESA, GAFTA, GCC, NAFTA, SAFTA, SICA, TPP)

Before the end of this topic, I would like to mention the characteristic of current Japanese FTA promotion. The current Japanese FTA promotion route is hard to be called the complete promotion of FTA. The reason is just because of the agriculture circumstances to secure a condition to be able to link the FTA with a little bad influence to the agriculture. For this reason, at the this report writing point in time,  Japanese government does not advance from the meeting for the study stage in the relations with Australia, and It is not clear whether Japan reach FTA negotiations with the large country such as China and U.S.A, so now TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) is pretty hot topic in Japan. I will explain TPP later.

Sources 

http://www.mofa.go.jp/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_agreement

http://www.nouminren.ne.jp/newspaper.php?fname=dat/201006/2010062103.htm