Japan doubts US serious about increasing rice exports

Japanese Agriculture Minister Taki Eto has cast doubt on whether the United States, which has criticized Tokyo for allegedly imposing high tariffs on American rice, is “really serious about expanding exports” of the product, and whether increasing purchases of U.S. rice will actually lead to food security. “I have serious doubts about whether this (increasing U.S. rice imports – ed.) will lead to food security or solve people’s concerns about the future. I understand that consumers want to import U.S. rice if it is cheap, but if we rely on foreign sources of rice, a staple food that we can produce ourselves, domestic production may decline significantly,” the minister stressed during a press conference on Tuesday. According to Eto, he has doubts about the seriousness of the U.S. intentions to increase rice exports. The minister also refrained from discussing the specific content of the negotiations on agricultural, forestry and fishery products, adding that he “has a proposal ...