Summary of NGO Meeting With Japanese Forestry and Fisheries Officials
in Washington
9/19/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Summary of NGO Meeting With Japanese Forestry and Fisheries
Officials in Washington
Source: Various NGOs
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 19, 1999
On September 16 (Thursday), Jim Jontz (American Lands Alliance), Doug
Norlen (PERC), Mark Vallianatos (Friends of the Earth-US), Ned Daly
(Consumer's Choice Council) and Anny Wong (Global Forest Policy
Project) met with Japanese forestry and fisheries officials at the
Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.
The meeting was hosted by Mr. Masaki Sakai, Counselor at the Embassy,
for Mr. Kazuo Nonaka (Special Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries), Mr. Masahiko Hori (Deputy Director of the
Wood Products Trade Office) and Mr. Shingo Ota (Assistant Director of
the Fisheries Marketing Division).
Discussions focused on the following:
1. The Japanese officials wanted to hear the NGO perspective on why
the U.S. government continues to push for the liberalization of trade
in forestry and fishery products when there appears to be a lack of
strong U.S. public support for this initiative. They were also keen
to understand why the U.S. is pushing for trade liberalization in
fishery products when the U.S. fishery industry may not necessarily
benefit from it, as well as the apparent lack of why public
discussion and NGO activities on this matter. For this purpose, they
had also visited IUCN and WWF offices earlier in the day.
Jontz and others said that the U.S. government, being host of the
upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in
November in Seattle, is eager to produce results that would benefit
the U.S. economy. Also noted was the close relationship that the U.S.
Trade Representative appears to have with the forest industry
companies. However, greater public awareness of potential
environmental and economic consequences is changing public opinion
and has prompted many more Congressional members to sign on to
letters to oppose this U.S. initiative.
They also repeated their position that tariff elimination should not
go forward in isolation of non-tariff measures, in other words, a
"comprehensive package." In this regard they used the word "balance"
several times.
On the World Trade Organization's Ministerial Meeting in Seattle this
coming November, they said that "environment will be a main issue of
discussion" for Japan.
2. The Japanese officials emphasized the need for new trade rules for
forestry and fishery products. This is one of the key points in their
national communication to the WTO (for the purpose of agenda setting
for the Seattle Ministerial). They said that discussions on forestry
and fishery products should be conducted independent of the
industrial sector because these are resource use issues. However,
they noted that, at the present time, only Korea supports this
Japanese proposal. Although they are unclear as to whether such
independent discussions should take place within or outside the WTO
framework, they are of the opinion that the WTO's Committee on Trade
and Environment (CTE) cannot sufficiently address environment and
trade concerns because it is a weak body.
They said new trade rules that could even reduce trade might be
acceptable so long as they are scientifically grounded and fair.
3. Finally, these officials underlined that the "promotion of trade
has detrimental impact on the environment." Although they stated that
"FAO [the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization] data
indicates many fisheries resources are already harvested to the
limit," they also said that they thought the problem was smaller.
They also added that less developed countries have not initiated
sustainable practices that developed countries like Japan and the
U.S. have.
On environmental impact assessment for trade issues, they said it is
needed and should be multilateral. Doug Norlen suggested a reference
to the United Nations Environment Program's Principle and Guidelines
for Environmental Impact Assessment as a framework for discussion.
As for agricultural subsidies, these officials believed that that
there is too much fixation on the subject and see sort ulterior
motive among those who are the most vocal opponents. They said that
subsidy removal must be preceded with a technical process and
discussion (such as through the FAO).
And a couple of points worth noting.
1. This is the second meeting between U.S. NGOs and Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) officials at the Embassy
of Japan. (The first meeting was in July this year.) MAFF officials
also met with U.S. and Japanese NGOs in Tokyo last month.
Furthermore, these officials said that Japan's communication to the
WTO, which stressed the multifunctionality of agriculture, was put on
the ministry's web site for public comments. This was probably
unprecedented in Japan where policy making has always been closed to
the public.
2. These officials are eager to contact U.S. NGO groups working on
fisheries issues, particularly in relation to the ATL proposal. The
Japanese fisheries subsidy paper submitted at the recent Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, was
distributed.