Japan's Ambassador looks back

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 14

Japan's Ambassador looks back

The last two years have been an uneasy time in relations between New Zealand and Japan. They could have been a great deal worse. Mr Umeo Kagei. the Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand, who is leaving to take up a post in Rome, after two years in this country, has helped in not allowing relations to deteriorate further than they did. Had events taken a nastier turn, New Zealand might have endangered a valuable market; Japan is this country's third biggest market and was worth $435 million in the year ended June. 1978. In the same period New Zealand took goods worth $390 million from Japan.

The cause of the conflict was trade. New Zealand, after many years of trying to persuade the Japanese that they should give greater access to New Zealand's agricultural products, at last linked Japanese access to fishing grounds with access to the Japanese market. The linkage appeared to offend the Japanese philosophically as well as being a threat to deprive them of the fishing which they wanted. When agreement was eventually reached, the fishing access gained by Japan was easier to see than any’ gains made by New Zealand. The details of the agreement have been kept secret to this day at the request of the Japanese. This has proved to be an embarrassment to New- Zealand, even though the secrecy might have had some political benefits in that the slightness of New Zealand gains have not been apparent for all to see. Yet speculation on the size of the deal with Japan should not be allowed to continue indefinitely. Mr Kagei would do a favour to this country as a

whole if he could persuade his Government to make the trade details public. In one of his departing interviews, Mr Kagei was asked whether Japan now accepted the New Zealand policy of relating fishing quotas to trade access: he replied that Japan took it as a kind of give-and-take policy, not unusual in relations between countries.

Although Mr Kagei is not admitting a great deal in this statement it is not an outright rejection of the link. In the same interview he advocated a little more flexibility in approach to help New Zealand to expand its trade with Japan. The shape of future trade with Japan is not clear, but the give-and-take aspect seems a reasonable one. It would be foolish on New Zealand's part to link specific quotas of fish to specific quotas of agricultural produce.

If diplomacy has been complicated for Mr Kagei in New Zealand, it has been made more difficult because of the change in political leadership and elections in Japan. But he spoke in optimistic terms about future trade. He also said that the economic plight of New Zealand had been brought to the attention of Japanese politicians. Both those statements are welcome signs for the future. Both New Zealand and Japan understand one another considerably better now than they did two years ago, and Mr Kagei has contributed to that greater understanding. He has said pleasant things about New Zealand as he leaves. Sometimes when diplomats are posted to New Zealand they consider that, because of New Zealand’s isolation, they are in for a boring time. At least Mr Kagei has been spared that.