Tokyo, February 16:

Japan said today it will join in a US complaint against China at the World Trade Organisation WTO) over Beijing’s industrial subsidies.

“We are planning to participate in the complaint as a third-party country,” trade minister Akira Amari said. He said Japan decided to join the complaint after a request from Washington and hoped that China would address the subsidies issue. “We have been providing China with aid and know-how since it joined the WTO so that they can make necessary changes,” Amari said.

“This action by Japan to join the complaint as a third party is done in a spirit to encourage China to carry out the needed efforts.” The US took China to the WTO on February 2, getting tough after years of quiet diplomacy. The global body will set up a settlement panel if the two nations fail to iron out the dispute within 60 days.

The US alleges that Beijing’s state subsidies for steel, paper, information technology and other industries make Chinese goods artificially cheap and prevent US companies from competing fairly. Amari acknowledged that Japanese firms that have Chinese partners have benefited greatly from the protective measures. “But we cannot tolerate it if it breaks the rules,” Amari said.

China is Japan’s largest trade partner, with Japanese companies depending on their giant neighbour as an industrial base and increasingly as a market for consumer goods. Japan and China have recently been repairing relations, with Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing currently on a visit to Tokyo to pave the way for a rare trip in April by premier Wen Jiabao. Japan’s ties with China and South Korea were badly strained during the tenure of then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

US threatens China

WASHINGTON: The US on Thursday threatened to revive a bid to drag China to the WTO over copyright piracy if bilateral talks sought by Beijing to fend off the action do not achieve a breakthrough. Under pressure from Congress, the administration of president George W Bush over the past year has been working to prepare a case challenging China’s compliance with its WTO obligations in the area of intellectual property rights enforcement. Last October, Washington informed China that it would be filing such a case, but then agreed to hold off, with the support of the US businesses, when Beijing asked for further bilateral discussion to address the American concerns. — AFP