The National Pork Producers Council said today that U.S. trade negotiators should insist in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations that Japan get rid of its “gate price” system.

In a letter to Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, NPPC said that, “The gate price has associated with it a long history of fraud and criminal activity, and it discriminates against Japanese consumers by putting upward pressure on food prices and has prompted Japanese meat processing companies to move their factories to other Asian nations, costing the country much-needed jobs.”

“The byzantine system also may violate Japan’s constitution, which requires that obligations contained in treaties be given legal precedence over domestic laws,” NPPC said in a news release.

”Japan considers the World Trade Organization’s “Marrakesh Agreement,” which established existing WTO rules, as a treaty,” the group said.

“Several plaintiffs, including a former Japanese government official, are arguing that the gate price violates provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, which prohibit the use of variable import levies, and, therefore, is in violation of the country’s constitution.”

The NPPC maintains that Japan “is demanding special treatment for its agricultural sector, including exempting pork and other ‘sensitive’ products from tariff elimination and maintaining the gate price on pork.”

NPPC noted that its support for a final TPP Agreement is conditioned on the elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers to U.S. pork exports in each of the TPP nations, including the elimination of the gate price in Japan.

▪ National Pork Producers Letter on TPP Gate Price