Japan and China will hold a ministerial meeting Friday in Beijing in a last-ditch effort to resolve a trade dispute over tit-for-tat import curbs to meet the day's negotiation deadline, trade chief Takeo Hiranuma said Thursday.
Hiranuma said he and Tsutomu Takebe, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, have been instructed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to resolve the dispute, which originated with Japan's decision to impose provisional curbs on three farm products that are primarily imported from China.
Japan has repeatedly said it will decide by today whether to impose full four-year curbs on stone leeks, shiitake and rushes used for tatami.