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.