Meeting between Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs and H.E. Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO

March 16, 2012
Japanese

(Photo)Meeting between Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs and H.E. Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO-2

On Friday, March 16, Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs, held a meeting and dinner with H.E. Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), who was on a visit to Japan as a guest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The overview of the meeting is as follows:

Japan's Roles in the World Trade
1) At the beginning, Minister Gemba stated as follows:
(A) The WTO is facing difficulties such as the impasse of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). Nevertheless, the importance of the organization remains unchanged and Japan will continue to play a leading role in the WTO.
(B) The economic partnerships which Japan is promoting allow emerging countries to be involved in the system and complement liberalization of trade in multilateral trading system while they provide basis for its development.
2) In response, Director General Lamy stated as follows (summary):
(A) Japan's role in the WTO system is highly appreciated and there is strong expectation toward it.
(B) Japan, which is promoting economic partnerships with broad range of countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, is a strong actor in the establishment of rules concerning international trade. Therefore, Japan's actions are drawing great attention.
Promotion of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA)
1) Minister Gemba stated as follows:
(A) Concerning further liberalization and establishment of rules among the DDA, it is necessary to strengthen the "Different Negotiating Approaches" by which willing countries will advance the processes.
(B) At the same time, all the WTO members should persistently make efforts for the maintenance and strengthening of the WTO system, such as resisting protectionism.
(C) Responsibilities of emerging countries, including the reform of current systems, should be discussed so that these countries with more of a voice they have come to have in the WTO will bear commensurate responsibilities.
2) In response, Director General Lamy stated as follows:
(A) Efforts by willing countries which are being made in the WTO such as China's accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), negotiations on trade services as well as the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) are promising and there are high expectations for such efforts.
(B) Although the emerging countries admit that they should share certain responsibilities, the WTO members have not yet reached agreement on how exactly to balance the responsibilities and this led to the impasse of the DDA. It seems to be difficult to solve this problem at the moment, but the WTO will tackle this problem persistently.
Reputational Damages
1) Minister Gemba stated that even after a year since the nuclear power station accident, some countries still maintain travel restrictions and import restrictions on foods from Japan. Minister Gemba stated that Japan sufficiently ensures safety on the basis of scientific evidence and therefore requested the WTO to play its role for fair treatment based on the rules.

2) In response, Director General Lamy stated that the WTO is exactly the organization to solve such problems, and that he therefore wants Japan to actively utilize the tools of the organization for this purpose. Director General added that if there is anything he could do, he would like to fulfill his role as Director General.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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