Retaliation for Bars on U.S. Exports : FCC May Revise Rules for Japanese Phone Imports
The Federal Communications Commission is considering retaliating against Japanese trade restrictions by requiring the same kind of product certification process that Japan uses to keep out U.S. products, FCC Chairman Mark S. Fowler said Wednesday.
“I have asked my staff to look at this as a possible means of assuring reciprocal openness in the Japanese telecommunications market,” Fowler said in a telephone interview.
“This is not a protectionist move,” he added. “The idea is one of fostering free and open markets.”
He said he told Japanese officials during his June visit to Tokyo that the current American procedures allow efficient and speedy certification of imported telecommunication equipment.
“I commended that to him (Keiwa Okuda, then minister of posts and telecommunications) for his consideration” as a model for the restructured Japanese telecommunications industry to follow, Fowler continued.
“The second point I made was (that) a considerable amount of concern has been expressed in this country about the inordinate delays in marketing American equipment in Japan. . . . We were getting a great deal of pressure from American manufacturers.”
The Japanese legislation, which takes effect April 1, also opens Japan’s telecommunications system to competing suppliers. The change has been compared to the breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. last year.
Fowler said the FCC staff is studying whether international trade laws allow it to impose import restrictions based on equal treatment for American products and whether the U.S. Communications Act permits the regulatory agency to alter its rules to help American companies sell overseas.
Among actions the commission is studying are setting priorities for certification that could relegate products from countries found to discriminate against American equipment to the end of the list; requiring that foreign labs win U.S. approval before they can certify products for sale in the United States, and a system of reciprocity that could deny Japanese labs the right to certify their products for the American market.
