JAPAN

Rice Trade Policy Talks Planned With U.S.: Japanese Agriculture Minister Masami Tanabu said he plans to meet the new U.S. trade representative to discuss Japan’s isolationist trade policy on rice. But he added that no details have been agreed upon. “I don’t know whether I’ll go or he will come, but I’m willing to meet him,” Tanabu told a news conference. The U.S. Senate confirmed longtime Clinton associate Mickey Kantor as Washington’s chief trade negotiator Thursday. During the Bush Administration, Washington agreed to discuss Japan’s ban on rice imports in the multilateral trade talks known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, but not in bilateral talks. Japan’s opposition to rice imports is one of several problems blocking completion of the six-year-old GATT Uruguay Round talks to liberalize world trade. Japan bans rice imports on the grounds of national food security.