A treatise on TPP and the environmental destruction which will accompany it can be found here!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Korea and FTAs: Japanese Perspective
Here is the basic Nokyo perspective on Korea.
Korea was a latecomer to the FTA business with respect to Japan, and really only got serious about it in 2003 when they released an FTA "roadmap."
By 2006, Korea had signed with Chile and Singapore as well as with Switzerland, Norway, Lichtenstein, and Iceland in the EFTA. In 2007, an ASEAN trade agreement came into effect, and in 2009 another service-based trade agreement came into effect. In 2010, an agreement with India came into effect, Korea came to an agreement with the US and signed with the EU.
The Korean economy is heavily dependent on exports (around 54 % to Japan’s 18), so FTAs were really supporting all this.
Because the government strongly supported the Korean zaibatsu, an increasing gap appeared between the big companies and SMEs. Intermediate materials and parts could be imported just as cheaply, and less was needed from the SMEs, which just intensified the problem. Korea had a huge trade deficit with Japan, because the more they exported, the more intermediate goods they imported from Japan. More exports did not mean more employment. Korea became a country with a very low rate of employment for university graduates.
The disappearance of SMEs affected agriculture as well. The number of full-time farmers is higher than Japan (58 percent). However, among those, 55 are one generation farms, 34 two generation, and 11 percent three generation. And each farm has overwhelmingly one or two people, which means one elderly person or an aging couple. There are not enough farmers.
And look at farm incomes with respect to household expenses. In 1995, it was 71 percent, but by 2000 it had dropped to 61 percent. So farmers have to work out, but with the SME group weakening, there are few opportunities in farming villages. People are leaving farms in Korea. Of course in Japan, older people born early in the Showa period are moving off the farms, but in Korea, it is young healthy people who leave the farms.
There we have have the position of Japanese agriculture on Korean agriculture.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Korea and the TPP
As I have been following the TPP controversy, I had failed to notice another piece of the puzzle: Korea.
According to the JA Shimbun, one of the unspoken the proponents of the TPP want the agreement so badly is that they fear Japan is being overtaken economically by Korea.
In 1960, the place was essentially a third world country with a 70 percent illiteracy rate. On average it has seen 7 percent annual growth since then, and it now has an individual GDP of 20,000 dollars, right in the bracket of other developed countries.
They are also threatening Japan in the super-competitive world of electronics products and automobiles. People in the financial world want to compete with Korea's FTA activities by signing Japan's own FTAs, or that is the JA position.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Where We Are At...
http://www.jacom.or.jp/news/2011/05/news110523-13549.php
It is interesting to look at the earthquake and the tsunami in terms of where Japan was before the disaster.
The grey areas on the graph show periods where the economic situation was worsening, so 2001-2 and 2008-9.
The triangles show where mining production has been.
The dots show actual exports.
Mining appears to be bouncing back a little, but exports will continue to plummet.
Now the worry is that the international community is going to at least distance itself from Japan's exports, or restrict them in various ways.
The dust has cleared: The JA figures we are looking at another 0 percent growth year. And the needs of the recovery are going to immediately start to bite.
Where does Japan fit with the overheating newly emerging economies and resource economies, and other stagnating developing countries?
Is a free trade agreement in the offing?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Earthquake Aftermath
The mainstream media has long since lost interest in the earthquake. However, farmers are still suffering in the north east.
Farmers have faced heartbreaking challenges with mud in their rice paddies, and water damage to their machines. Pumps are broken, so in some cases it is impossible to get rid of waste water from rice plots, and in other cases it is impossible to pump water in.
In many cases, the sea has brought in 3 or 4 centimetres of silt to rice paddies, and salt and sulphur is preventing crops from growing.
Some farmers now have their tractors in the shop, and are painstakingly taking their engines apart to get them running again.
Farmers themselves are often aging, so in many cases the land will simply cease to be cultivated.
In many cases, farmers are just waiting for some kind of recovery plan to come from the government.
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