WTO Ministerial Conferences

Japan's Position

1. Overview

　The rule-based multilateral trading system is the basic foundation of the prosperity after the Second World War and Japan has benefited significantly from the system. Launching the new WTO round is of vital importance so as to maintain and further strengthen this multilateral trading system. The Japanese government is making its best effort in cooperation with other WTO Members in order to start the negotiations at the Ministerial Conference in Doha.
　Through the new round of negotiations, Japan hopes to promote further trade liberalization while clarifying, strengthening and extend WTO rules. In this regard, Japan attaches great importance in giving due considerations to the interests and concerns raised by developing Members. Japan will continue to provide technical assistance to these countries. In the meantime, the Government intends to incorporate the views of the wide-ranging sectors of the society, when conducting the negotiations.

2. Specific areas (which are expected to become major issues in Doha)

(1) Agriculture
　Through the negotiations, Japan will continue work towards establishing agricultural trade rules which would enable various types of agriculture to coexist, while not prejudging the outcome of the negotiations at the launch.
(2) Services
　By setting a negotiating framework which would facilitate the smooth conduct of negotiations, Japan hopes to further liberalize the trade in services worldwide.
(3) Market access of non-agricultural products
　Through negotiating tariffs and non-tariff barriers of WTO Members, including developing countries, Japan will contribute to the negotiations which duly consider environmental issues as well as sustainable use of resources, particularly for fishery and forestry products.
(4) Anti-dumping
　Bearing in mind the dramatic increase of anti-dumping measures invoked by WTO Members, Japan strongly supports the start of negotiations to strengthen the disciplines so as to prevent the abuse of the measures.
(5) Investment
　Taking into account the interests of all WTO members, including developing countries, Japan aims to commence the negotiations to set the rules on investment.
(6) Environment
　While bearing in mind the viewpoint of the global environmental issues and sustainable use of resources, Japan will seek the issue of trade and environment to be adequately addressed in the new round.
(7) Measures for developing Members
　In order to facilitate the launch of the new round, Japan will make its best effort to respond to the request made by developing members in such areas as implementation-related issues, improvement of market access of products originating from least-developed countries (LDCs) as well as trade related technical cooperation.