Japan and the United States remained at odds over rice in bilateral working-level talks here as part of negotiations on a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade pact.
The United States’ demand over the Japanese rice market is “tougher than expected,” a senior official in Japan’s ruling coalition said.
The rice trade issue is now likely to be dealt with at expected minister-level talks between the two countries, sources familiar with the situation said.
The two countries are discussing a proposal for Japan to increase imports of U.S. rice as staple food in return for allowing the country to omit it from the list of items subject to tariff elimination.
While Tokyo is aiming to limit US rice imports at 50,000 tons a year, Washington is demanding more. “We have yet to find a common ground,” one source in the bilateral negotiations said.
For beef and pork, technical issues related to emergency import restrictions Japan could invoke in case of a steep increase in imports are “the last remaining problem,” informed sources said.
The two sides had detailed discussions on conditions for triggering such safeguard measures, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the two sides appear to be coming closer over cuts in Japan’s tariffs on beef and pork, the sources said.
Tariffs on US beef may be reduced to around 9 percent in more than 10 years from the current 38.5 percent, while that on pork is seen to be slashed to around ¥50 per kilogram in stages from the present levels of up to ¥482.
Japan regards five farm categories rice, beef and pork, dairy products, wheat and barley, and sugar and starch as key areas where it wants to protect domestic producers from foreign products.
