The government spent about 1.55 trillion yen on measures in fiscal 2015-20 to soften the impact of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on domestic businesses, but many policy goals have not been achieved, according to the Board of Audit.
This is the first time a clear picture of the budget execution for TPP-related measures has been revealed. As some projects failed to achieve satisfactory results, the board called Wednesday on the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry to take steps to improve the situation.
Japan, Australia and Canada are among the 11 members of the TPP trade deal, which came into force in December 2018. A major pillar of the TPP is the abolishment or reduction of tariffs on key agricultural products such as rice, beef and pork. This has made boosting the competitiveness of domestic farmers a pressing task.
