G7 calls for Japanese food bans to be ‘immediately’ lifted after China’s curbs

G7 trade ministers ‘deplore actions to weaponise economic dependencies’ in a statement without mentioning China
The group also expresses its ‘concern’ over recent control measures on the export of critical minerals

Japan

Reuters

Published: 4:31pm, 29 Oct 2023

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The Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers called on Sunday for the “immediate repeal” of import curbs on Japanese food products, a reference to China’s restrictions after Japan began releasing waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The G7 trade ministers, in a statement after a weekend meeting on Osaka, did not mention China but they also denounced what they consider its rising economic coercion through trade.

“We deplore actions to weaponise economic dependencies and commit to build on free, fair, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationships,” said the 10-page statement.

China slapped a blanket suspension of Japanese fish imports two months ago when Japan started the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific. While Japan and the US have called the curbs unfair, Russia announced a similar restriction earlier this month.

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The plant began releasing a second batch of treated radioactive waste water into the sea on October 5.

The waste water discharges, which are expected to continue for decades, have been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighbouring countries including South Korea, where hundreds of people staged protest rallies.

China urged the G7 not to “stubbornly adhere to double standards” but take practical action to maintain the normal international trade and investment order.

In a statement late on Sunday, China’s embassy in Japan said: “The G7 members undermine the level playing field and disrupt the security and stability of global production and supply chains.” China also called the G7’s actions “economic coercion”.

The G7 - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - also expressed “concern” over recent control measures on the export of critical minerals.

China, the world’s top graphite producer, this month announced export curbs on the key material, used in electric vehicle batteries, in another bid to control critical mineral supply in response to challenges over its global manufacturing dominance.

Oysters, including the ones from Japan, on sale in Moscow on October 16. On the same day, Russia suspended all Japanese seafood imports over the release of Fukushima’s wastewater. Photo: AFP

The G7 ministers “shared the need, a genuinely strong one, to reduce dependence on a particular country” for the supply of critical resources, said Yasutoshi Nishimura, trade minister of the host Japan. “We completely agreed to build resilient and reliable supply chains” for critical minerals, semiconductors and batteries, he told a press conference.

The ministers reaffirmed their concerns on “a wide and evolving range of non-market policies” that include “pervasive, opaque and trade-distortive industrial subsidies” and forced technology transfer, the statement said.

On Russia, the G7 officials condemned its destruction of Ukrainian grain export infrastructure in its invasion of the country, and Moscow’s decision to “unilaterally” leave talks on an agreement that had allowed grain giant Ukraine to export wheat and other products through the Black Sea.

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Unlike the G7 finance ministers’ meeting two weeks ago, which condemned “terror attacks” on Israel by Hamas, the trade ministers did not mention the Middle East crisis, saying only that they “seek to raise awareness about the challenges of moving humanitarian goods across international borders during natural disasters and other emergencies”.

Western countries have generally backed what they say is Israel’s right to self-defence, but there has been mounting international concern over the toll from Israel’s bombing and growing calls for a pause to allow aid to reach Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Additional reporting by Associated Press