By Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO (Portal) – Japan has told the World Trade Organization (WTO) that China’s ban on Japanese seafood following the release of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant was “totally unacceptable”, Japan’s foreign ministry said late on Monday.
Rebutting China’s August 31 notification to the WTO of its measures to suspend Japanese water imports, which began last month, Japan said it would explain its positions in relevant WTO committees and called on China to immediately lift the measure.
Some Japanese officials have signaled that the country may file a WTO complaint, something the U.S. ambassador to Japan said last week that the United States would support.
Japan will explain the safety of the released water at diplomatic forums, including the ASEAN summit in Indonesia and the G20 summit in India this month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters on Tuesday.
“Nothing has been decided yet about a leaders’ meeting between Japan and China,” added Matsuno, Tokyo’s top government spokesman. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang will attend the ASEAN and G20 summits, while Chinese President Xi Jinping is skipping both conferences.
In a separate statement on Monday, the Tokyo Foreign Ministry said Japan had also asked China to hold talks on the import ban based on the provisions of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact.
Although marine products account for less than 1% of Japan’s global trade, which is dominated by automobiles, Japan exported about $600 million worth of aquatic products to China in 2022, making it the largest market for Japanese exports, followed by Hong Kong.
To ease the pain of the loss of demand for seafood, Japan will spend more than 100 billion yen ($682 million) to support the domestic fishing industry.
($1 = 146.6100 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)