Some Progress Reported in U.S.-Japan Trade Talks

W. Allen Wallis, undersecretary of state for economic affairs, said here Friday that some progress has been achieved since Lionel H. Olmer, undersecretary of Commerce, assailed Japan last week for proposing to set up “a cumbersome and inherently discriminatory” telecommunications system April 1.

Olmer, in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on March 8, had condemned ordinances that Japan is still in the process of drafting. On Friday, Wallis said only that “it is premature for us to make any comment on the steps Japan may take.”

Wallis, who headed a delegation of 42 U.S. officials from five departments and two agencies that spent five days here for talks spanning all U.S.-Japan trade issues, made his comments in a news conference.

With only 12 working days left before Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. is transformed into a private company and its monopolies ended--allowing private firms into the fields of telephone, telex and facsimile service--Wallis said no final conclusion was reached in this week’s third round of talks.

More conversations and negotiations are expected before April 1, he said. He added: “We stressed that both countries must redouble their efforts to make these discussions successful.”

He said Japan had promised to put in writing “within just a few days” its answers to nine U.S. requests for a simpler and more open system of government certification and approval of companies wishing to enter the telecommunications field. Negotiations are focusing on a series of ordinances being drawn up in the Postal and Telecommunications Ministry to implement the reforms.

Wallis directly linked President Reagan’s March 1 decision not to ask Japan for a fifth year of passenger car export restraints to U.S. expectations for “rapid and meaningful steps to be taken soon to open Japan’s telecommunications market.”