China and Japan have moved forward in their attempts to solve their trade dispute over farm produce as department director level officials from the two sides held talks on the issue yesterday afternoon and this morning.
Experts hailed the talks as significant in decreasing the possibility of the dispute escalating, although they didn't expect the talks to have any "quick and substantial" results.
The Chinese negotiation team was headed by Guo Li, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) and made up of 23 officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, MOFTEC and the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine, said a news release from MOFTEC yesterday.
Tanaka Hitoshi, director of the Economic Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs led a delegation of 25 people to Beijing, including officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.
"This is an important step forward taken by both sides to solve the problem," said Li Guanghui, a senior researcher with the Asia-Africa studies office of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
"Both sides have taken a positive attitude and this substantially reduces the possibility of the dispute spreading into other products and industries," Li told China Daily.
But Li said the talks were not expected to bring a quick end to the issue.
"It may take higher level officials to solve the problem," said Huang Dahui, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Li said it is too early to judge whether agreements could be reached on the issue before the Japanese July election, which is believed to be the hidden cause behind the Japanese restrictive measures.
Japanese media also reported that Japanese officials were not yet prepared to soften their hard line on China and said they would not call off the measures.
Japan declared emergency tariffs in early April on imports of onions, mushrooms and tatami rushes, mainly from China, triggering the trade row.
The move was widely seen as politically motivated as Japanese statistics failed to prove that imports had soared high enough to damage the welfare of Japanese farmers.
The move met with strong opposition from Japanese companies that have invested heavily in China as well as with Chinese officials who insist that the measures were not taken in line with World Trade Organization rules.
(Chinadaily.com.cn 07/04/2001)
