In late August, China submitted a notification of emergency measures to the World Trade Organization (WTO), stating that it planned to suspend imports of all Japanese-origin aquatic products as a result of the controversial release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Soon after the notification, Japan’s delegation to the WTO submitted a counterargument on 4 September challenging the ban that emphasizes the safety of the discharged wastewater, including a detailed plan to monitor the water at three stages: in tanks, during dilution and discharge, and in the sea.
The first treated water release occurred from 24 August to 11 September, but intermittent releases are likely to continue for about 30 years. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, began its second round of discharges on 5 October.
To ensure that those concerned with the release could monitor its progress on their own, TEPCO prepared a website with monitoring results updated every three hours in Japanese, English, Korean, and three dialects of Chinese – for mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
The same data is also available on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) website. The related IAEA webpage highlights the status of the release and the monitoring results at six points, each with detailed labels of current activity.
Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has also reported sample seawater results from multiple points based on the distance from the wastewater’s discharge point, including the concentration of various major radionuclides within three and five kilometers of the discharge point.
As yet another monitoring measure, Japan’s Fisheries Agency monitors and reports tritium levels of fish caught by gillnet near the discharge point, while also presenting these results multilingually in an attempt to appeal to China and South Korea. The latter country maintained its 2013 ban after the water release on seafood from eight Japanese prefectures.
Even with all of these monitoring measures in place, China has maintained its new absolute ban, and South Korea has maintained its decade-long partial ban. Hong Kong, Russia, and other markets have also instituted their own bans.
The WTO has dispute-resolution procedures that might allow Japan to impose countervailing duties on Chinese imports if China cannot prove a scientific basis for its ban, but Japan has not yet proceeded to filing a formal complaint.
“We are undecided whether to file a complaint to the WTO immediately,” Japanese Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita said after attending a fair to promote Japanese scallops in Malaysia – one of the products most affected by China’s ban. “At any rate, we hope to find a resolution within the WTO framework.”
For now, Japan will rely on the submitted counterargument and continue to explain its position within related WTO committees while looking for alternate markets for its seafood products, such as Malaysia and the U.S.
The U.S. also recently announced it plans to buy Hokkaido scallops for its military as part of a wider effort to offset China’s ban on seafood.
Japan’s scallop industry requires alternate markets more drastically than other products, as the mollusk was formerly Japan’s most valuable seafood export, earning the country JPY 91 billion (USD 610 million, EUR 574 million) in 2022. China was its biggest export market, buying 51.3 percent of the product, followed by Hong Kong.
In addition to the event Miyashita attended in Malaysia, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) have been hustling to set up other tasting and promotional events. For example, a tasting event for Hokkaido scallops became a hastily procured addition to the Anuga Trade Fair in Cologne, Germany, on 7 October. Similar events have also taken place in England and France.
On a positive note for Japan, Chinese scientists will soon join a third-party international monitoring team. This marks the first time that China has joined an IAEA-led monitoring process since the discharges of the treated water began.
The IAEA announced on Tuesday that experts from China, South Korea, and Canada would join its team to sample and analyze seawater and fishery products from the area around the Fukushima plant from 16 October to 23 October.
However, even as China participates in the monitoring process, the country’s Foreign Ministry said that since the IAEA is carrying out the sampling and analysis under a bilateral arrangement with Japan, it falls short of a true international monitoring arrangement with the full and substantive participation of all stakeholders; therefore, the scientists’ participation does not lend the process national endorsement.
Image courtesy of the Tokyo Electric Power Company
