Japan-Mexico: trade agreement

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Japan and Mexico reach final FTA agreement

The Japan Times: March 13, 2004
By MAYUMI NEGISHI
Staff writer

Japan and Mexico reached a final agreement Friday on a bilateral
free-trade agreement, but postponed a decision on tariffs for some Mexican
farm products.

Ending nearly 16 months of bitter negotiations, the two countries will aim
to put the pact into effect in January, Japanese government officials
said.

"I am positive that (the pact) will serve Japan's national interest,"
trade minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters after the agreement was
made via a ministerial teleconference late Friday.

The conference included farm minister Yoshiyuki Kamei and Foreign Minister
Yoriko Kawaguchi, and Mexico's agriculture secretary Javier Usabiaga and
economy secretary Fernando Canales.

The deal would phase out barriers on certain Japanese exports to Mexico,
and lower those on Mexican pork, chicken, beef, oranges and orange juice
imports.

Japanese tariffs on three Mexican products -- chicken, beef and oranges --
will remain at zero for the first year or two within the annual low-tariff
quota of 10 tons each. The quotas will be expanded after the transitional
period. But the two sides postponed deciding on what the tariffs will be
until after the transitional periods.

The tariffs on about 380 Mexican agricultural products will be eliminated.

The delay on the three Mexican items stems from Japanese officials' fear
that they might antagonize farm groups ahead of ongoing trade talks with
Asian nations, a senior farm ministry official said.

"Lowering trade barriers even a notch is loaded with symbolic
implications," he said. "We do not know how many Mexican farm products
will come into Japan, so we want to be careful before deciding on a rate."

The sensitivity of even reform-minded government officials to farmers'
interests points to the long road still ahead before Japan's farm market
is opened.

Japan is currently in talks with Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and
South Korea.