TOKYO — Japan will not sacrifice the agricultural sector as part of its tariff talks with the United States, its top negotiator said on Tuesday, after President Donald J. Trump complained that the key Asian ally was not buying American rice.

Mr. Trump’s comment, made in a social media post on Monday, comes as Tokyo scrambles to convince the US to scrap a 25% tariff on Japanese cars and a 24% reciprocal tariff on other Japanese imports. The reciprocal tariff has been paused until July 9, but Japan has yet to secure a trade deal after nearly three months of negotiations.

While the auto sector is Japan’s top employer and exporter, the farm sector has traditionally been an important voting bloc for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party, which faces key upper house elections on July 20.

“I have repeatedly stated that agriculture is the foundation of the nation,” top trade negotiator and Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa told a press conference.

“In negotiations with the United States, our stance remains unchanged: We will not engage in talks that would sacrifice the agricultural sector,” he said, adding that he would continue to negotiate with his US counterparts to protect Japan’s national interests.

Mr. Akazawa, who returned from his seventh trip to Washington a few days ago, declined to say whether rice was part of those discussions.

Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that Japan’s reluctance to import American-grown rice was a sign that countries have become “spoiled with respect to the United States of America.”

“I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” he wrote.

AMERICAN RICE IMPORTS RISE
Japan has in fact imported historically high volumes of US rice in recent months as domestically grown rice has skyrocketed in price since last year, hurting consumers.

But Tokyo caps tariff-free imports of staple rice — which is consumed at meals as opposed to rice used for feed or ingredients in other products — at 100,000 metric tons (MT) a year and imposes a levy of ¥341 ($2.37) per kilogram for anything beyond that. That amount is a fraction of Japan’s total annual consumption of about 7 million MT.

While Farm Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has lamented the influx of foreign rice as a threat to Japan’s food security, the government has brought forward a tender usually held in September for this year’s first 30,000 tons of tariff-free staple rice imports as part of efforts to lower domestic prices.

Results of that tender, held on June 27, showed applications for 81,853 MT, or nearly three times as much as the amount auctioned. Of the total tendered, 25,541 MT was from the US, followed by 1,500 MT from Australia and 708 MT from Thailand.

Tariffed imports have also increased. In May alone, private companies imported some 10,600 MT of staple rice, of which about three-quarters came from the US, Finance Ministry data shows. — Reuters

TAIPEI — Taiwan will simulate a Chinese blockade and invasion of the democratic island in its annual military and civil defense drills next week, as President Lai Ching-te warned on Tuesday the island was already facing China’s “war without gun smoke.”

The annual Han Kuang exercises starting on July 9 will last for 10 days and mobilize more than 22,000 reservists, both unprecedented in length and scale. Taiwan is facing ramped-up military pressure by China which considers the separately governed island as its own despite Taiwan’s strong rejection.

Addressing soldiers in a video ahead of Han Kuang, Mr. Lai said in recent years Taiwan has been constantly preparing for a “war without gun smoke” such as Chinese infiltration and disinformation attacks.

“However, there is no need to worry because the democratic, free, and prosperous Taiwan of today is the result of the Taiwanese people’s courage, conviction, and action in fighting their way through various challenges, and the unity and resilience of the Taiwanese people has been demonstrated.”

Tung Chih-hsing, head of the defense ministry’s joint combat planning department, said drill scenarios included “joint fire attack and the sea ferry of the landing group by the Communist Army” and Taiwan’s armed forces will practice building up a “chain of strikes” with naval and air precision attacks.

“We are demonstrating our determination and ability to defend ourselves with practical actions,” Mr. Tung told a press briefing in Taipei, adding the armed forces will upgrade its combat readiness level if China launches “targeted drills” in response.

Civil defense drills will be held alongside Han Kuang, including issuing missile alerts and evacuation drills that will temporarily shut business and suspend traffic in major cities including the capital Taipei.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Mr. Lai has since June given three speeches in what will be a series of 10 on “uniting the country” ahead of a July 26 recall vote for around one quarter of parliament’s lawmakers — all from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party.

Beijing had angrily rebuked some of Mr. Lai’s recent remarks as the two capitals clashed over their competing interpretations of history in an escalating war of words over what Beijing views as provocations from Taiwan’s government.

Civil groups involved in the recall campaign has framed the election as a no-confidence vote against what they see as Beijing-friendly lawmakers who are working to undermine Taiwan’s democracy, a position strongly rejected by the KMT. — Reuters