Japan will not ask the World Trade Organization to set up a dispute-settlement panel to rule on the legitimacy of steel import curbs imposed by China, a top trade official said Monday.
"A call for establishing a panel is logically possible, but I think we should consider other means . . . given that the measures are provisional," Katsusada Hirose, vice minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, said.
Earlier in the day, officials from the two countries began working-level talks in Beijing over the 180-day "safeguard" restrictions China imposed last month on certain steel imports.
Tokyo plans to determine whether the restrictions are in line with the safeguard rules of the Geneva-based trade watchdog and to ask Beijing to drop the measures.
China imposed tariffs ranging from 7 percent to 26 percent on nine types of steel products May 24 in a bid to prevent an import surge from damaging its steel industry. It was the first trade-related action it has taken since joining the WTO in December.