Japan unhappy with new WTO proposal

TOKYO, May 1, 2007 (AFP) — Japan gave a cool response to a World Trade Organisation proposal that no more than five percent of agriculture products be designated as "sensitive" items in global free trade talks.

"We are dissatisfied with the new proposal. We cannot protect sensitive products with a level of five percent," Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka told reporters in Geneva late Monday, according to officials in Tokyo.

Crawford Falconer, the chairman of the WTO's special committee on agriculture, proposed Monday that the number of "sensitive" products -- such as rice in Japan -- that would be excluded from drastic tariff cuts should be limited to no more than five percent of the total.

Japan wants a ...