Japan and China, which had been mired in a drawn-out farm trade dispute since April, managed to reach a last-minute settlement avoiding a head-on confrontation late last week. Tokyo withdrew its threat to slap full-scale import curbs on three Chinese products: leeks, mushrooms and rushes (used in tatami mats), while Beijing agreed to lift its 100-percent retaliatory tariffs on Japanese cars, mobile phones and air conditioners.

Beginning in January, a bilateral panel comprising Chinese exporters, Japanese producers and government officials will monitor trade flows for the three products. The question of how to restrain Chinese exports is left to future "consultation." But the two governments, anxious to avert a lawsuit battle over trade, have refused to take the dispute to the World Trade Organization.

That is probably the most notable aspect of the settlement. Essentially it is a politically inspired compromise that has defused the bomb, at least for now, but left unresolved a host of deep-seated problems in farm trade between the two countries, particularly the competitive weakness of politically oriented Japanese agriculture and the heavy export dependence of Chinese agriculture.