Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Thursday he and Tsutomu Takebe, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, will leave for Beijing to resume talks on a bilateral trade dispute, Kyodo News reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed the two ministers to go to Beijing by the end of Thursday to engage in last-minute efforts to resolve the dispute over Japan's provisional import curbs on three farm products, mostly from China, Hiranuma was quoted as saying.
The ministerial talks are seen as the last chance for the two countries to settle the dispute before the deadline for Japan to decide on whether to impose full four-year import curbs.
On Wednesday, the two countries failed to make a breakthrough at their vice-ministerial talks in Tokyo over the trade dispute stemming from Japan's emergency import curbs on stone leeks, shiitake mushrooms and rushes used in tatami mats.
The trade row flared up in April when Japan slapped 200-day provisional import curbs on the three farm products.
In June, denouncing the Japanese measure as discriminatory, China responded by imposing 100 percent punitive tariffs on imports of Japanese motor vehicles, mobile phones and air conditioners.
( December 20, 2001)
