Japan and U.S. to Discuss Ending of Trade Barriers

Japan agreed Tuesday to discuss with U.S. negotiators the elimination of trade barriers--both those erected by the government and those created by “private institutions and traditions.”

The decision came as U.S. and Japanese officials began a new round of trade talks focused on four industrial sectors: telecommunications equipment, electronics, forestry products and medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.

The talks represent a new approach by the Reagan Administration and are expected to last more than a year.

W. Allen Wallis, under secretary of state for economic affairs, said barriers in the four sectors were keeping out of the Japanese market $10 billion of American products that are “highly competitive” in terms of price, quality, reliability and technological excellence.

He said Japan has agreed to discuss “the full range of laws, regulations, institutions and customs that could impede free access for foreign suppliers” in the four sectors.

He added that “all market forces bearing on imports, whether they be generated by government or by private institutions or traditions, or what” would be considered.

The United States has recorded a trade deficit with Japan in every year since 1965 and has been in trade negotiations with Japan on many occasions, but Japan has never before agreed, even with qualifications, to discuss the removal of non-governmental barriers to imports.

Reishi Teshima, a deputy foreign minister who headed a negotiating team of top officials from seven ministries of the Japanese government, said he had advised Wallis that Japan is willing to cooperate with the United States, which has asked Japan to eliminate all obstacles in all stages of commerce, “beginning with production and including import procedures, distribution, administrative guidance, efforts by U.S. firms, and business customs.”

But he added, without going into detail, that “there are things that can be done and things that cannot be done.”

Wallis said U.S. negotiators will be looking for examples of impediments that traditional Japanese business practices present to U.S. exporters.

He said the United States will judge results on the basis of actual increases in future Japanese imports.