Japan to Curb Chinese Farm Imports

LDP Risks Beijing’s Ire as Party Tries to Boost Rural Support

By Masayoshi Kanabayasi

Tokyo – Japan’s government, complicating a tense situation in North Asia, will slap emergency curbs on imports of Chinese agricultural products in a bid to shore up farm-lobby support ahead of a Japanese election.

The cabinet said it would protect Japanese farmers by placing restrictions on imports of Chinese-grown leeks, shiitake mushrooms and rushes used in making tatami, the traditional Japanese floor mats. The Finance Minister held out the possibility of a compromise, noting that a Japanese negotiator is heading to China before the curb takes effect April 23. Tokyo hopes to prod China into adopting “voluntary” export restraints, just as Washington in the past compelled Tokyo to curb Japanese auto exports to the U.S.

The goods targeted by Japan represent less than 1% of its imports from China by value, but the action could prove politically significant. It marks a setback to a broad move by Japan in recent years to begin practicing the free-trade line it has long preached by opening its markets to a wide variety of foreign goods. It also marks the first time Japan is invoking the World Trade Organization rules to restrict imports.

An official, who declined to be named, also tied Tokyo’s move to broader trade tension between the two Asian giants, including the recent spat over the quality of some Japanese car and computer imports.

Tokyo will invoke provisional import restraints on Chinese exports of leeks, mushrooms and rushes under the rules of the WTO, the global trade umpire. If Chinese imports of these goods exceed the average annual amount shipped over the past three years, Japan would impose duties on the three goods, ranging from 106% to 266%, to raise the Chinese products to Japanese price levels.

The Wall Street Journal Europe

LDP – the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

Vocabulary

to curb imports – ограничить импорт; to slap emergency curbs on imports – ( в срочном порядке) ввести чрезвычайные меры по ограничению импорта

to restrict imports – ограничить импорт; to place restrictions on import – ввести ограничения на импорт; to invoke restraints on smth – ввести ограничения на ч-л; import restraints – меры по ограничению импорта; voluntary export restraints – добровольные меры по ограничению экспорта; provisional import restraints – временные меры по ограничению импорта; farm (agricultural) import – импорт cельскохозяйственной продукции

to impose duties on – ввести пошлины на

bilateral (multilateral) trade – двусторонняя (многосторонняя) торговля

external (internal) trade – внешняя (внутренняя) торговля

Assignment

Explain in English the following:

WTO, the globe trade umpire; to shore up farm-lobby support; tied Tokyo’s moves to broader trade tensions between the two Asian giants; the action could prove politically significant.

Don’t just read the news, understand it

Hard Landing

When policy makers and pundits debate America’s current-account deficit, the phrase “hard landing” is never far from their minds. It sums up what might happen if foreigners tired of financing the gap, now over 6% of GDP: a sinking dollar, soaring interest rates, tumbling asset prices – all dragging America’s economy into recession.

Optimists think that all this is pretty unlikely. It is far more probable, they say, that America’s imbalances will come right gradually, via a (gently) weakening dollar and slower demand growth at home. More pessimistic observers fear that the risk of a hard landing is rising. Some of these point to the financial crises that hit several emerging markets in the 1990s, in which currencies collapsed and interest rates climbed as foreign investors fled. The same could happen in America, they worry, once foreigners sour on Uncle Sam.

So far, the optimists have had the better of it. Foreigners have carried on lending to America, and at low rates of interest. Although the dollar has weakened, it has not crashed. But what if it did sink suddenly? Then, surely, the hard-landing logic would come into play: bond yields would rise sharply as investors demanded compensation for the risk of higher American inflation and further falls in the dollar.

The Economist, 2005

Notes

1. to tire– устать
2. hard landing– “жесткое приземление”: резкое снижение курса валюты до экономически обоснованного уровня (после подъема) с негативнымипоследствиями для экономики и участников рынка. Сравните: soft landing (“мягкое приземление») – 1) плавное снижение курса валюты до экономически обоснованного уровня 2) темпы экономического роста, которые достаточны для того, чтобы избежать спада и одновременно невызвать рост инфляции и процентных ставок, т.к. когда экономика растет слишком быстро, ФРС США пытается получить “мягкое приземление” с помощью повышения процентных ставок, что сдерживает рост экономики и цен.
3. bond yield– доходность облигаций
4. to fly (fled, fled)– спасаться бегством

Vocabulary

to drag economy into recession –вовлечь экономику в состояние спада

weakening dollar – падающий курс доллара

emerging markets – растущие рынки; возникающие (новые) рынки

currency collapse – резкое снижение курса валюты; обвал

to lend - предоставлять кредит или ссуду

Unit 3

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