A panel set up by Japan and China will hold talks next week in Tokyo on import levels of three farm products, Kyodo News reported Wednesday.
Government officials and producers from both countries will discuss the ideal levels of imports from China to Japan on leeks, mushrooms and rushes used in tatami mats, officials of Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
The dispute flared up in April 2001, when Japan imposed 200-day import curbs on the three items to protect domestic producers from surging imports.
The following month, China retaliated with punitive tariffs on Japanese motor vehicles, air conditioners and mobile phones.
Under an agreement the two countries reached last December, Japan has canceled the full, four-year import curbs on the three farm products and China ended its retaliatory tariffs.
( May 16, 2002)
