Japan counter-attacks U.S. over WTO

Agencies, Tokyo/Singapore

Japan dismissed Friday a scathing attack by the United States over Tokyo's role in World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, saying it was Washington that should be criticized for insisting on its own economic agenda.

"Japan is making its utmost efforts to launch a new round of talks and has been in talks with other nations for consensus building," Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tsutomu Takebe told a news conference.

"It is unfair that we are being criticized. Rather, a country that is forcibly trying to add its own demands in a WTO ministerial statement should be criticized," Takebe said, pointing the finger at the U.S.

Takebe was commenting on a blistering attack Tuesday by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who accused Japan of taking a narrow-minded approach to next week's WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar.

Zoellick said the Japanese had refused to give any ground in negotiations leading up to the Nov.9-13 meeting, at which countries hope to launch a new round of global trade liberalization talks.

"I have been frankly extremely disappointed by the lack of Japanese, I would not expect leadership, but even respectable followership," Zoellick said.

It was the strongest public attack yet on Japanese government policies by a member of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

"So far while I have been willing to discuss the antidumping and countervailing duty issues in a way that tries to work out something, the Japanese have just said no to everything in the process," Zoellick said.

If the WTO failed, the U.S. would pursue trade liberalization through regional and individual country-to-country deals, Zoellick said, noting that it was already in talks with the Free Trade Area of the Americas on bilateral fronts with Chile and Singapore.

Meanwhile, a U.S. trade official said on Friday, developing countries will be given a greater say in setting the agenda for a new round of global trade talks later this month in a move aimed at averting the "disaster" that befell the last WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle two years ago.

Trade ministers have done more to involve developing countries and have employed a "consultative process that perhaps didn't happen two years ago," Jon Huntsman, deputy trade representative for Asia, told reporters in Singapore during a teleconference from Washington.

Complaints by ministers from emerging market countries that they were left out of the decision making process in Seattle was cited as one of the reasons the meeting collapsed with no agreement being made.

The U.S. has worked over the last several months to bring a number of developing countries on board, including India, Pakistan and Egypt, he said.

"Seattle was a disaster two years ago and there were a lot of reasons for that," Huntsman said.

Besides the lack of support from developing countries the Seattle meeting was doomed because the proposed agenda for the new round of trade talks was too complex, there was a lack of transparency, and there wasn't enough flexibility in negotiating positions, he said.

"We will not make the same mistakes this time," he said

While admitting that he tends to be an "optimist," Huntsman said he was confident that the WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar would result in the successful launch of a new round of global trade talks that could be completed in three to five years.

The U.S. will seek a negotiating agenda limited to market access for industrial products, agriculture, services and government procurement, he said.

The U.S. isn't interested in bringing more controversial subjects into the negotiations, such as labor rights and the environment, Huntsman said.