September 2, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1424

TOKYO, Sept 1: Japanese farm minister Yoshiyuki Kamei will visit the US this week to discuss the thorny issue of agricultural trade ahead of a key meeting of the WTO in Cancun, Mexico, the government said Monday.

Kamei will arrive in Washington on Tuesday and meet US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Wednesday, the farm ministry said in a statement.

Last week, the WTO top official in Geneva circulated the draft of a declaration to be issued at a ministerial trade summit in the Mexican resort city in two weeks.

But Japan voiced immediate opposition to the draft, saying its call for the introduction of a ceiling for tariff rates on imports would hurt Japan’s rice industry which is currently effectively protected by a tariff of 490 per cent imposed on imported rice.—AFP