TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Japan will expand handouts to beef and pork farmers by raising the percentage of losses covered by the government to 90 percent from 80 percent now, according to a draft of the policy outline for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal on Tuesday.
The government will also boost purchases of domestic rice for reserve stocks to prevent prices from falling due to new tariff-free import quotas from the United States and Australia under the TPP agreement, the draft seen by Reuters said.
The steps are expected to ease farmers' worries over the TPP deal and an increase in imports of cheaper foreign farm products. The TPP pact still requires ratification by member countries.
Japan also aims to raise the value of farm and fishery product exports to 1 trillion yen ($8 billion) before an initial target year of 2020, the draft said.
In 2014, Japan's exports of such products was about 612 billion yen.
With a recent increase in the number of foreign tourists, the nation also aims to attract 20 million foreign visitors a year prior to 2020 and wants to see their annual spending hit 4 trillion yen, according to the draft.
The government is expected to include TPP related measures in a supplementary budget for this fiscal year and also in an initial budget for the next fiscal year starting from April. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13F20Y urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12U3B6
($1 = 122.5300 yen)