Japan, the world's largest pork importer, may accelerate tariff talks with Canada to increase pressure on the United States to ease demands for cuts in agricultural protection, the nation's biggest hog farmers group said.
Canada, the largest pork exporter after the United States and the European Union, has been in talks with Japan on a bilateral trade pact since November 2012. Japan agreed to almost halve its tariff on Australian pork under a deal reached earlier this month between the two governments. The four countries are among 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
"Canada is eager to boost pork sales to Japan and may seek treatment similar to what Japan gave to Australia," Takashi Koiso, a director at Japan Pork Producers Association, said in an interview in Tokyo. Lawmakers from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party said the tariff reduction Japan offered to Australia is a "red line" for the TPP.
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