Japan, China confirm importance of free trade

April 17, 2018

Tokyo- Japan and China on Monday confirmed the importance of strengthening the world's free trade system in the face of protectionist moves by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

In their first high-level economic dialogue in about eight years, the two Asian countries also agreed to enhance cooperation in trade and investment, ahead of a bilateral summit and a three-way summit also including South Korea, both slated for May in Japan.

Referring to the rapidly changing economic environment for the two countries, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said at the beginning of the meeting, held in Tokyo, that his country aims to leverage this opportunity to strengthen the bilateral relationship further.

China hopes that the two nations will discuss the future of bilateral cooperation from a new starting point, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

The two officials cochaired the meeting in Tokyo, which lasted about three hours.

The Japanese participants included Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko and Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Keiichi Ishii.

From China, Finance Minister Liu Kun and Commerce Minister Zhong Shan attended the meeting.

The high-level dialogue was suspended from August 2010, because bilateral relations deteriorated mainly over the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, claimed by Beijing.

At the day's session, the two countries agreed to hold the next meeting in China at a convenient time for both sides. Informed sources said the dialogue may become a regular conference held every year.

China and the United States are in a spat over steel trade and intellectual property rights. The two sides have invoked punitive trade restrictions on each other.

In the high-level dialogue, the Japanese and Chinese officials exchanged views on the issue.

"We share the view that a trade war would significantly affect the international economic prosperity," Kono told reporters after the meeting, without naming the United States.

Regarding intellectual property rights, the Japanese side complained that foreign companies are required to transfer technologies to Chinese companies.

Tokyo also sought Chinese action to deal with excess production, which led the United States to impose fresh steel and aluminum tariffs on many countries including Japan and China.

The Chinese side replied that the country is trying to improve its business environment.

Japan also asked China to ease its import restrictions on food produced in Fukushima Prefecture and elsewhere that were introduced in response to the nuclear disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 power plant in the prefecture. But there were no deep discussions on the topic, officials said.

Also on Monday, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Liu.

They agreed to speed up preparations for the next bilateral financial dialogue expected to take place in China later this year. In the previous session held in May last year, the two countries agreed to start a joint study on public pension systems. Jiji Press