WTO calls on Japan to accept more FDI, reform farm sector

GENEVA, Feb. 18 Kyodo -
Japan should open its doors wider to direct investment from abroad and step up
reform of its agricultural industry, the World Trade Organization said in a
report released Wednesday.
Inward foreign direct investment in Japan ''remains substantially lower'' than
outward FDI and is ''relatively low'' compared with that in large economies
belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the WTO
said.
As an example of the Japanese trend, the global trade watchdog referred to
Tokyo's recommendation in April last year against a British investment fund's
plan to boost its equity stake in Electric Power Development Co.
The WTO also pointed out that Japan's agricultural sector ''remains relatively
protected from foreign competition.''
While Japan's overall level of government assistance for agriculture is ''well
above the OECD average,'' labor productivity in the sector has remained less
than one quarter of the national average, it added.
Amid an increasing number of countries said to have deployed trade
protectionism measures since the onset of the global financial crisis last
fall, the WTO said Japan appears to have introduced no new measures to protect
its market.
The report will serve as a base on which the WTO will review Japan's trade
policy on Wednesday and Friday.
==Kyodo