Japan's trade and farm ministers today cancelled their planned trip to India for a crucial round of WTO talks this week after the Liberal Democratic Party-led government was vanquished in Sunday's general elections.
India had invited Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai and Agriculture and Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shigeru Ishiba to participate in the informal ministerial meeting in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday as part of efforts to revitalise the WTO's stalled Doha Round of global trade liberalisation talks.
The Japanese government will now dispatch to the meeting senior ministry officials, including vice trade minister Hiroyuki Ishige, Kyodo news agency reported.
Nikai and Ishiba, who were re-elected on Sunday, will remain in office until the victorious opposition DPJ forms a new government, widely expected to take place in mid-September.
"It is not appropriate for me to go (to the meeting) given the change of government," Ishiba told reporters.
The current Cabinet, comprising LDP lawmakers, is expected to resign later this month when the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will form a new government after it won the House of Representatives election by a landslide.
The DPJ won 308 seats in the 480-member lower house in Sunday's election, giving it a powerful mandate for change. At a separate press conference, Nikai denied that sending no ministers to the meeting would have a negative impact on Japan's interests.
"We always have close contacts with the WTO and our partners in the organisation," he said, adding, "I think things will not drastically change during the upcoming meeting."
Ministers from more than 30 countries along with representatives of international bodies will participate at the WTO meeting in New Delhi.
Quoting a diplomatic source, Kyodo said that the idea of the meeting is to "evolve a consensus to re-energise the Doha process and it is not intended to discuss specifics."
The WTO has pledged to conclude the Doha Round within next year. The process, which aims to support economic growth in poor countries through enhancement of trade, was launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital and originally scheduled to be concluded in 2005.
