A merica and Japan are the two biggest participants in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (tpp), an ambitious "21st-century" proposal for a free-trade area involving a dozen countries and a third of world trade. A conundrum for anyone following negotiations in recent months has come from measuring the upbeat rhetoric emanating from both camps against the apparent lack of progress. The conundrum was solved on September 24th when tpp negotiations between the two sides suddenly collapsed. Japan's economy minister, Akira Amari, stormed out of talks in Washington, dc with the American trade representative, Michael Froman, leaving only his sandwiches on the table. The tpp was supposed to be central to plans by Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to pep up the economy. Japanese farming is heavily protected and inefficient. Mr Abe promised big changes when it came to "sacred" areas protected by swingeing import tariffs including rice, wheat, beef, dairy and sugar.
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