Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has asked the visiting head of the World Trade Organization to help counter misinformation about the safety of Japanese products due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. During a Thursday meeting in Tokyo, Noda appealed to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy over the strict restrictions on Japan's food exports that many countries have yet to ease, even though "scientific evidence" has confirmed their safety, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Lamy voiced his willingness to cooperate, saying the Geneva-based WTO's role is to resolve exactly this kind of fair trade dispute, the ministry said.

Noda and trade minister Yukio Edano, who met separately with Lamy, also stressed that Japan remains committed to advancing the WTO's long-stalled Doha Round of trade liberalization talks.

In his meeting with Edano, Lamy said Japan has been laying "many eggs in WTO baskets" and even "a few eggs in other baskets," referring to Tokyo's rush to agree to more bilateral and multilateral free-trade accords amid the deadlocked Doha talks.

But Lamy said he is "very confident" that Japan can juggle "the two baskets," and will work toward their eventual convergence.

"Japan has been engaged in various free-trade negotiations, but we think the WTO should be at the core of free trade," Edano said. "I think that has not changed and should not change."

Japan is pushing to ink FTAs with various countries, including Australia and South Korea, as well as the European Union.

Last November, Tokyo also declared its intention to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade regional bloc.

Japan's "other baskets" could lead to entry into the TPP talks or FTAs with the EU, China or South Korea, Lamy told reporters after meeting with Noda and Edano.

"Sometimes it makes sense to do things bilaterally, and there has already been a coexistence for many, many decades of multilateral agreements and bilateral agreements," he said.

However, the ultimate goal should be "multilateral convergence," Lamy said.

As for the stiff domestic opposition to joining the TPP talks, especially from the farming sector, Lamy described it as inevitable.

"I totally understand there are different views. In any trade negotiations, you have the usual turbulence," he said, citing the public opposition in both the United States and South Korea before they inked an FTA, which took effect Thursday.

Source: Japan Times

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