P. M. BRIEFING : Japan Official Waffles on Rice
Japan should continue to ban rice imports, the trade minister said today, reversing comments he made Thursday that the ban violated the spirit of free trade.
“Japan’s refusal to import any rice at all cannot be understood abroad and contradicts GATT’s (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) goal of a free trading system,” Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry Hikaru Matsunaga said in Tokyo on Thursday.
But today Matsunaga said Japan should continue its ban on rice imports to maintain self-reliance.
He said that he made his earlier comments to explain how difficult it is to reach an agreement on the agricultural trade issue outside Japan and that he did not mean Japan should liberalize its rice market.
Matsunaga’s comments Thursday spurred considerable criticism in Japan, especially within his own party, the ruling Liberal Democrats.
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