Japan's proposal on global farm trade came under attack from the United States and other farm-exporting countries for the second straight day Tuesday at a meeting of the World Trade Organization.
Trade sources said the U.S. recognized Japan's participation in the talks as a positive step. The U.S. said, however, that the proposal's concern with nontrade issues such as securing food supplies, along with its inclusion of special safeguards against imports made it more regressive in content than the agreements reached under the Uruguay Round of global trade talks.
The WTO was holding a three-day meeting on global agricultural trade.
Harsher criticism of the Japanese proposal, which adopts a so-called multifunctional approach toward farm issues, came from Latin American countries.
Uruguay described the Japanese proposal as impractical and self-serving and said it was "a bad joke" that should be ignored.
Argentina said Monday that allowing the proposal to gain further acceptance would undermine international trade and the system set up under the WTO.
On Monday, Australia's delegate to the WTO talks said the proposal "raises questions as to whether Japan is prepared to engage seriously in discussion on the agreed long-term objective of reform of agricultural trade."
In response, Japanese officials said the comments revealed "a huge misunderstanding, or one based on a distortion of the facts."
Japan was committed to maintaining liberalization of trade in agriculture and services as specified by the Uruguay Round of negotiations, the officials said.
South Korea and Switzerland were among a group of farm-importing countries wholeheartedly supporting the Japanese proposal during the meeting.
Although the WTO is supposed to set up the negotiation timetable and other procedural issues by mid-March, farm-exporting and importing countries have been at odds at each other over the pace of liberalization and food security concerns.