GENEVA (AFP) - The World Trade Organisation condemned Japan for failing to fall into line with an earlier ruling that ordered it to lift import restrictions on US apples.
In a report, the WTO's dispute settlement body said Japan had breached international trade rules by maintaining the controls "without sufficient scientific evidence."
For the sake of background, this is the article that reported the suicide of Dr. Tanii as a result of being blacklisted by Japan Inc. for reporting 'scientific evidence' that the powers that be didn't want reported.
http://www.debito.org/taniisuicideLATIMES.html
Police determined that Tanii had committed suicide by drinking pesticide.
His death passed without public notice. But according to Japanese officials, police, close associates and relatives interviewed in Tokyo and here on the island of Hokkaido, Tanii took his life after his research had placed him in the cross-fire of a heated agricultural trade dispute between Japan and the United States.
Just two months earlier, Tanii had been listed as co-author of a paper presented by an American professor that concluded that a distinct strain of the bacterium Erwinia amylovora--which causes a devastating disease called fire blight in apple and pear trees--was present in Japan.
In the world of apples and trade diplomacy, that was a damning disclosure. Japan's bureaucrats long had insisted that the archipelago was free from the disease. And they had used fear of its spread as a cornerstone of a trade policy that effectively barred apples imported from the United States, where the disease is endemic.
Now the WTO ( a toothless tiger, but occasionally able get a few things in the papers) has told Japan that it must play by the rules. Looks like another wrist slapping to me. Looks like just another day at the office for the spin doctors over at the J Ag. ministry and Jetro. Tell me I'm wrong.
