In Japan, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is straddling a rough course between defending its key farm constituency from overseas competition and liberalizing its economic relations with other nations under the intended ultra-liberal TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations. The government's negotiators are refusing to brief LDP party members or their farm constituents under the guise that they've signed a secrecy agreement. If negotiators concede market access to agricultural imports, the LDP will have to craft some form of mitigating policies to ease the burden on around two million people. However, the Nikkei reports that the LDP cannot begin talking about the form that the mitigation will take because that will signa...

TAGS – Softs, Australia, Asia, North America