Japan's Curb of China's Farm Exports Against WTO Rules

Japan's import curb of China's products lacks of proofs and runs against certain rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), an official of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) has said.

On April 23 this year, the Japanese side started temporary protective measures against three farm products, green Chinese onion, fresh mushroom and tatami rushes, which mainly imported from China.

The MOFTEC official said the Japanese decision runs against the WTO rules in several aspects -- the selection of products to investigate, the basic conditions to impose the protective measures, the objectiveness of the decision and some others.

The selection of the three farm products to investigate runs counter to the non-discrimination principle of the WTO, said the official.

The Japanese side selected the three farm products, more than 90 percent of which came from China, for investigation. But it did not investigate those surging imports of farm products from some WTO members. Such an investigation has constituted nation- discrimination, the Chinese official pointed out.

The imports of tomato, green pepper and onion, which the Japanese side had planned to investigate, all sharply increased from 1996 to 2000. The Japanese side finally did not make any investigation into the imports of the three products although the prices of the same products from Japan have been evidently affected by the imports.

"That shows that from the very beginning the Japanese side did not match its claims of treating each the same way, and have incurred a discriminative treatment to Chinese exports," said the official.

The official pointed out that the declining of the business of the three farm products is not a result of the harm of imports, but rather a result of an inappropriate industrial structure and lack of competitiveness of Japanese agriculture.

As the Japanese agriculture has been declining since the 1970s and lacks of competitiveness, the Japanese Government imposed multiple protective measures for its agriculture. But the protective measures failed to solve the problem and only resulted in a continuous higher price of Japanese farm products at home.

Japan is the country whose price of farm products is the highest in the world, said the official. That has left much market room for imports of farm products.

"So far, the Japanese side only provided China statistics of the increase of imports and the declining of relevant industries without an objective, just and convincing conclusion of investigation, nor an explanation of the relations between the import increase and the declining of the industries," said the official. "Those are a must to impose import curb in accordance with relevant rules of the WTO."

In addition, the Japanese side conducted its investigation in a very narrow sphere, which does not represent the general trend. Neither did the Japanese side listen to opinions of relevant parties.

"In that case, the Japanese side cannot be objective, just and making decisions out of facts," said the official.

The Japanese side repeatedly claimed that although China is not a WTO member, it is willing to handle bilateral trade and economic affairs within the framework of WTO. But in bilateral talks it only proposed to turn the temporary protective measures into formal protective measures, and has never mentioned negotiating a compensation plan for the loss incurred to the Chinese side due to the protective measures of Japan, which is also stipulated in WTO rules.

"That shows whether or not Japan has truly acted according to WTO rules," the official said.

The Japanese side asked China in bilateral talks to self- initiates exports control over the three farm products, and sent China written proposals. That is strictly prohibited by relevant rules of the WTO and therefore is of course rejected by the Chinese side, said the official.

The official concluded that all the aforementioned facts show that the temporary protective measures the Japanese side imposed against the three Chinese farm products severely run counter to WTO rules in terms of its procedure and its substantial content.

"Japan, as a leading member of WTO, is the largest beneficiary of free trade," said the official. "By turning from free trade it has always preached to trade protectionism, Japan will not only damage its own international image, but also harm its long-term economic interests."

The official stressed that the current trade disputes was initiated solely by the Japanese side and "whoever started the trouble should end it by him," the official quoted an old Chinese saying.

"The only way to solve the problem is to immediately cancel the import curb over the three Chinese farm products by the Japanese side, and then the two sides start negotiation to resolve the problem appropriately."

(Xinhua News Agency 06/27/2001)