U.S. Agriculture Secretary RichardLyng said he will ask Japan to offer a share of its rice market
to U.S. exporters when he visits that country next month.
    In an interview with Reuters, Lyng also said the Reagan
administration will ask Tokyo to remove its quotas on U.S. beef
and citrus exports.
    Lyng, who plans to be in Japan April 14-27, said he will
not ask Tokyo to liberalize fully its rice market. "We will urge
that they consider sharing their rice market," he said.
    The USDA secretary would not say how big a share of the
Japanese rice market the U.S. would request. "We've got none of
it now. If we got one per cent of it, it would be a big
improvement," he said.
    Last year, the Reagan administration rejected a petition by
the U.S. rice industry seeking relief from Japanese import
restrictions.
    However, the U.S. said it would reexamine the issue if by
mid-1987 Japan did not roll back import barriers to U.S. rice
exports.
    Lyng said he would not be conducting formal negotiations
next month with Japan over their beef and citrus quotas, but
that his visit "may be a forerunner in a general way" to talks
prior to expiration of the bilateral agreement in March 1988.
    He said, however, that the U.S. "will ask for a definite
liberalization of those items (beef and citrus).... When you
translate 'liberalization' into Japanese, it means do away with
the quota."
 Reuter
