Japan seen rejecting APEC mark in forestry, fisheries tariffs
Japan seen rejecting APEC mark in forestry, fisheries tariffs
TOKYO (Agencies): Japan affirmed Tuesday it will uphold its rejection of planned early tariff cuts in the fishery and forestry sectors at an upcoming Asia-Pacific meeting.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi met several ministers Tuesday to discuss Japan's position at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the DPA news agency reported.
A ministerial meeting is scheduled for the weekend in Kuala Lumpur, to be followed by the summit on Nov. 17 and 18.
Obuchi told the ministers to uphold and explain Tokyo's position on APEC's Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization (EVSL) initiative, International Trade and Industry Minister Kaoru Yosano said.
The initiative, agreed at the forum's annual meeting in Vancouver last year, calls for fast-track tariff cuts, trade rule harmonization and economic and technical cooperation in nine industries.
Given that APEC upholds the principle of volunteerism, Japan has maintained that it would not participate in cutting or eliminating tariffs for the two politically-sensitive sectors of forestry and fishery but that it is willing to endorse EVSL in other areas.
At a news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said that Japan "will seek understanding and support of other members until the very last minute through diplomatic channels".
Just ahead of the summit, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura has toured Indonesia and other Asian nations as well as Australia and New Zealand to explain Japan's position on this issue.
Komura admitted that he did not see eye-to-eye on the tariff cut issue with Australian and New Zealand officials.
These two nations and the United States - all major agricultural exporters in APEC - have been stepping up calls on Japan to agree to cuts in all nine sectors, saying that Japan's failure to participate will water down the grouping's drive toward trade liberalization.
Japan has been arguing that APEC is not a forum for tariff cuts, and that tariffs should be taken up at the World Trade Organization.
Komura and Nonaka said the most important issue at the upcoming meeting would be measures to deal with the Asian economic crisis, not the EVSL initiative.
Meanwhile Malaysian trade minister said on Tuesday his country will focus on regulating foreign currency speculators when it plays host to a Pacific Rim trade summit next week,
"The bottom-line view is that there must be an international resolution to this problem through putting into place some framework," International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz was quoted by AP news agency as saying.
Senior officials from the 21-member group begin meeting Thursday. Leaders of the Pacific Rim countries, including newcomers Russia, Peru and Vietnam, will meet next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Malaysia stunned the financial world in September when it imposed sweeping capital controls to curb flows of speculative money and peg the Malaysian currency at 3.80 ringgit to the dollar.
Malaysia has long held that the Asian currency and stock market turmoil was brought about by speculative attacks by currency traders and in no way reflected weaknesses of the battered economies.
On Tuesday, Rafidah said such economies would now be more receptive because they, too, were beginning to feel the impact of the crisis that has spread beyond Asia.