Japan has no plans to liberalise its farm markets but will try to narrow the gap between the price of farm products at home and overseas Agriculture Minister Mutsuki Kato said. He told reporters the move is aimed at deflecting criticism of Japanese protectionism on its agricultural goods. But Kato said he has no plans to start bilateral trade talks with the United States over rice Japans staple food. Washington has called Tokyos rice policy an extreme example of protectionism and has demanded access for U.S. Growers to the Japanese market. This is closed to imports except in emergency. Kato said Japanese farmers should however shed some blood to relieve the dangerous state of international farm trade. His comments precede a meeting on July 1 and 2 of the Rice Price Council at which the government advisory body will discuss the 1987 crop producer rice price. Kato said he welcomed the outcome of last weeks recent summit of leaders of leading industrialised democracies in Venice and of farm trade talks at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in May. Ministers at both conferences agreed on the long-term need to cut subsidies worldwide Kato said. Kato said that Japan is not the only country to protect producers. He said the United States spends some 25.8 billion dlrs a year to support producer prices and on its export enhancement program and the EC 21.7 billion while Japan spends only 2.9 billion. He said that although Japan provides the worlds highest level of subsidies per acre its subsidy per farm family was several times lower than in the United States. Expressing concern about growing protectionist moves in U.S. Congress he said Japan should make efforts to prevent farm trade issues between the two countries from becoming a factor increasing protectionism in the United States. Japan and the United States are holding panel discussions at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade over Japans import restrictions on 12 farm items. Bilateral talks on beef and citrus trade in the period from next April are due to start this autumn.
JAPAN HAS NO PLANS TO LIBERALISE FARM MARKET