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Report
No.240605 |
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- International - |
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Agriculture Minister Matsuoka Talks with US Officials on WTO and Beef During his tour of the United States, Mr. Toshikatsu Matsuoka, Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries met with Ms. Susan C. Schwab, the United States Trade Representative on January 10 in Washington, D.C. The talk did not see a sign of convergence as the USTR insisted from begging to end of the talk to say that Japan and other countries take the first step of accepting substantial reduction in agricultural tariffs. Agriculture Minister Matsuoka attempted to persuade her saying "the U.S. should take the first step in making additional cut on its domestic farm subsidies," in order to move the stalled WTO agriculture negotiations. The United States spends some $20 billion per year in domestic agricultural subsidies. The discussion was held based on the perception that subsidy spending of not less than $15 billion would not mean meaningful additional spending cuts. Agriculture Minister Matsuoka also checked to prevent any development that might put food importers like Japan on unfavorable position as a result of subsurface talks between the United States and the European Union. After the meeting, Mr. Matsuoka told the press that during the talk the USTR asked for the age limitation of U.S. beef import to be loosened up from the cattle 20 months old and younger to those younger than 30 months. Agriculture minister rebutted by saying "This is a time when the priority should be placed on compliance with the prevailing criteria and its taking firm ground. No talk can be held on (the U.S. proposal) as yet." On January 11, there was held Japan-US agriculture ministers' meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns for the first time since Mr. Matsuoka became agriculture minister. Secretary Johanns also raised the issue of beef import criteria and asked to enter talks on it, but to no avail. Prior to his U.S. visit, Agriculture Minister Matsuoka met with Dominique Bussereau, French Minister of Agriculture. They mutually confirmed collaborative relationship in opposing substantial tariff reductions in the WTO negotiations on agriculture. |
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