China has assured Japan that it will not use Japanese financial aid to subsidize its farm exports, a senior Japanese agriculture official said Monday.
Toshikatsu Matsuoka, senior vice minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, told reporters the assurance came earlier Monday in a meeting with Long Yongtu, China's vice minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation.
Japan plans to extend 197.2 billion yen in government credit to China, but the foreign affairs panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has delayed endorsement of the credit line, earmarked for fiscal 2000, pending a clarification of China's export policy.
Matsuoka said Japan may slap an emergency "safeguard" curb on fast-rising imports of some Chinese-grown farm products this month, especially leeks, shiitake mushrooms and rush, which is used in tatami.
"I want to invoke the measure," he said.
Under WTO safeguard rules, a country can curb imports if it can prove they are inflicting, or threaten to inflict, serious damage on domestic industries in relation to nine criteria, including lower domestic output and job losses.
Japanese officials said that Matsuoka had urged Long to restrict exports of the products.
Long, however, said that it is first necessary to account for the large discrepancy between Japanese import statistics on Chinese-grown farm products and China's corresponding export statistics.
Japanese figures show that Japan imported some 37,000 tons of Chinese-grown leeks in 2000, while China's numbers put the quantity at around 4,400 tons.
Long reportedly told Matsuoka that China will consider proposals to address the problem before Japan makes a decision on the curb.
"If the Chinese side puts forward a convincing proposal, even after Japan imposes the curb on a provisional basis, we could conclude a bilateral agreement" that might end the import curb, Matsuoka said at a news conference.