/www.bloomberg.com/ Tokyo, Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Japan rejected a World Trade Organization proposal to slash state subsidies for farmers, saying it would hurt agriculture in the world's second biggest economy.
``The proposed cuts are far too ambitious. It would severely damage agriculture in Japan,'' said Tadamori Oshima, Japan's agriculture minister, at a press briefing.
Import tariffs on some products would be cut by 60 percent under the proposal and Japan's 490 percent levy on imported rice almost halved, Oshima said.
An informal three-day meeting of the WTO in Tokyo starting Friday will discuss the proposal. The gathering will try to iron out differences that might threaten prospects for a global accord on trade in manufactured goods and services worth an estimated $700 billion over the next decade. All 145 WTO members meet in Cancun, Mexico in September to discuss lowering trade barriers.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party relies heavily on rural support to stay in power and has refused to lower duties on agricultural products, including the levy on rice protecting farmers from overseas competition.
Poor countries, such as India, and food exporters, such as Australia, Brazil and the U.S., say they want more access to markets such as Japan's in return for cutting tariffs on industrial goods and lowering barriers.
European Criticism
The draft document, written by Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the Geneva-based organization's agriculture negotiating committee, has also been criticized by the European Union, while the U.S says it doesn't go far enough. Japan will argue its case at the WTO discussion, said Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
``We have to work to make sure Japan's position is understood,'' Koizumi said at an informal press briefing.
Japan's farming union, which has 9 million members, yesterday said the country already imports 60 percent of its food and urged the government to resist moves to lower agricultural charges and said it agreed with the EU's stance on maintaining tariffs.
Japan's refusal to consider lowering trade barriers to foreign agricultural products has hampered efforts to secure trade agreements with other countries in Asia.
The country signed its first and only free trade agreement in January last year with Singapore, which has negligible agricultural exports.
Japanese farmers depended on subsidies for about two-thirds of their income, the fourth highest among the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development after Switzerland, Norway and South Korea, according to the OECD.