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Rice, politics& economics
Rice plays an important role in the politics of most of the Asian countries due to the dependence of their population on rice as a main or sole source of their living. In Japan rice is considered sacred and the government prohibits its importation and exportation in order to preserve its social value. Countries fix the prices of their product from time to time depending on the quality and abundance of the harvest. The rice farmers and the other persons involved in rice cultivation have a significant role to play in orienting the country’s policy and supporting the government. Other countries exert pressure on Japan to open the door for the international market to invest in the production of rice and eliminate the acts and laws that prohibit its importation and exportation because this will open new prospects in the international trade.
The (GATT) threaten the rice trade in Japan:
The implementation of the (GATT) and the laws of the (WTO) will compel exp/imp of rice the thing which will create an economic crisis and new political problems as it is likely that some imbalance in the production of and demand to rice will occur.
The American farmers are preparing themselves to the “rice war”.
Some U.S. farmers have started since many years cultivating and storing the short grain type preferred by the Japanese preparing themselves for the expected critical point of time when the Japanese markets will be open for trade which will impact the bi-lateral trade balances. This is called the “rice war”, an unannounced war which is breaking out now behind the scenes and for which the two countries (U.S.A and Japan) are preparing themselves, the Americans through increasing production, and the Japanese by economic and financial techniques including entering into competition through other products like the electronics…etc.
The bad weather conditions such as the floods and universal crises negatively affects the output of some countries like Bangladesh and India, thus the governments of these countries are sometimes compelled to import rice to cover the big shortage in food. This has impacts on the economies of those countries.
Some countries export the good quality types of rice, which are preferred by their population to other countries to gain hard currencies and national incomes, paying no attention to the desires of their people. Thus it is evident that rice plays a significant role in shaping the politics & economics of most of the countries.
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