Chinese and Japanese negotiators wrapped up talks on a thorny trade dispute yesterday without shedding immediate light on whether they were closer to ending a row in which each says the other broke world trade rules.
"Today's talks ended as scheduled [at 3:30 GMT]," a Japanese official said. "There will be no more meetings in Beijing this time," he said.
China had yet to comment on two days of negotiations between trade, farm and foreign affairs officials from the Asian trade powerhouses to remove major irritants in a trading relationship worth some US$70 billion a year.
But one analyst said the relative brevity of the talks -- two hours yesterday, following three hours on Tuesday at which each side only explained its position -- did not augur well for a resolution of the three-month row.
The state-controlled China Daily said the talks would help avert a wider trade war, but quoted government-affiliated trade scholar Huang Dahui as saying, "It may take a higher level to solve the problem."
The stubbornness of the dispute over Japan's curbs on Chinese farm products and China's subsequent duties on Japanese industrial exports contrasts with the progress in China's WTO entry talks in Geneva.
China, the EU and the US agreed on Tuesday there had been a major breakthrough in talks on the terms for China's 15-year quest to join the WTO, with trade officials predicting it would be in the trade body early next year.
Japan and China began their talks trying to sound positive.
Japanese delegation head Tadakatsu Sano said, "I think that by the end of this we will at least understand each other quite well."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said China hoped to settle the matter in Beijing this week. She played down weeks of acrimony, saying, "It is natural to have trade disputes."
Each side has accused the other of breaching WTO rules in a dispute analysts say underscores the need to get China into the trade governing body. With China outside the WTO, there is no independent referee to rule which side is right.
China has demanded Japan lift the prohibitively high duties on imports of Chinese-grown shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and rushes for tatami mats Tokyo imposed in April.
It says Japan's curbs represent trade protectionism which violate WTO rules and Tokyo has not demonstrated that imports from China have damaged Japanese producers.
On June 22, China slapped 100 percent tariffs on imports of Japanese motor vehicles, mobile phones and air conditioners in what was seen as a tit-for-tat move to pressure Tokyo.
But Japan says it imposed the temporary "safeguard" curbs under WTO rules, which preclude retaliation, to protect domestic industries from cheap imports.
It is China's move that breaks the rules, Japan maintains.
Japanese data show Tokyo's measures affect Chinese goods worth about US$100 million a year, compared to US$700 million of Japanese goods effectively shut out of China's market.
According to Tokyo's data for 2000, Japan's exports to China were worth ?3.16 trillion (US$25.40 billion) and its imports from China were ?5.50 trillion.
Despite mounting optimism that China, the world's ninth largest trader, could join the 141-member WTO body early next year, analysts say the China-Japan spat won't be the last showdown.
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