Japanese to fix fruit quarantine problems

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 12

Japanese to fix fruit quarantine problems

NZPA staff correspondent Tokyo Quarantine procedure problems affecting New Zealand fresh food exports would be resolved, Japan’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Shinjiro Yamamura, has told New Zealand’s Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, Mr Moore.

Fresh food from New Zealand had been delayed at Tokyo’s Narita Airport because it arrived at the week-end after Customs officials had finished work, an embassy official said. “There was no indication of time scale,” said Mr Moore.

But the Japanese Minister had said his people were preparing a paper on the subject. “I think they have moved a bit further on this than we might have expected,” Mr Moore said.

Other issues raised by the Minister in his discussions were the traditional prob-

lems of tariffs and quotas which restricted New Zealand’s entry into the Japanese market.

There were no significant changes in Japanese attitudes, said Mr Moore. Nor were there unpleasant surprises.

New Zealand was restricted by quotas on certain marine and dairy products and beef in Japan, said the embassy official. There were also tariffs imposed upon New Zealand fish caught by New Zealand fishermen but not on the same species caught by Japanese joint venture companies in New Zealand waters.

New Zealand radiata pine, amongst some other species, was subject to tariffs while Douglas fir from the United States, was not.

Mr Moore also raised with Mr Yamamura, the problem of the high retail tax on high-quality wool carpets in Japan, which irritated Japanese retailers.

Japan is New Zealand’s biggest wool market, with sales in the June, 1984, year of $NZ139.8 million, up from SNZIII.9 million the previous June year. Mr Moore said he had emphasised in his call yesterday upon Mr Shintaro Abe, Japan’s Foreign Minister, New Zealand’s desire to see agriculture placed alongside manufactured goods and other forms of production in future General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (G.A.T.T.) negotiations. Several countries, including Japan and the United States, have so far refused to have agricultural items in G.A.T.T. on self-suffi-ciency grounds, related to defence and other aspects, he said.

New Zealand, with 70 per cent of its exports in the agricultural sector, felt G.A.T.T. as it stood was lopsided, said Mr Moore. Japan this year became New Zealand’s biggest trading partner with two-way trade of SNZ3 billion.