Japan Eases Standards on Phone Gear : Changes Offer U.S. Firms Greater Access to Equipment Market

In further confirmation that the Japanese are easing the way for U.S. companies to enter their telecommunications market, U.S. negotiators announced Friday that Japan has agreed to drop, modify or clarify more than half of the 30 technical standards that it demands for equipment that private users attach to its communications system.

The U.S. Electronic Industries Assn. promptly praised the accord as giving American equipment makers reciprocal access on a technical level to the Japanese market.

American industry sources said revisions in standards will open the doors for the first time to sales of U.S.-made integrated voice-data PBXs, or private branch exchanges; voice-mail machines, which record and store voices in digital form, and “smart” modems, which allow computers to place phone calls and transfer data over phone lines.

Separately, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, saying there will be no exceptions to the principle of free trade, on Friday set up a commission of top officials to open the Japanese market to foreign products.

18 Standards Affected

Nakasone, who will head the new External Economy Policy Promotion Headquarters, said in the first meeting that “no sanctuaries will be accepted.”

“This is our last chance to promote external economic policies. If we fail this time, our international reputation would suffer greatly,” Nakasone was quoted as saying in Japanese news reports of the meeting.

Donald Abelson, director of technical trade barriers in the office of the U.S. trade representative here, said 18 of the 30 telecommunications standards will be affected by the new agreement. He also said the Postal and Telecommunications Ministry agreed that private organizations, rather than the government, will be allowed to develop the formulas for ways to interconnect equipment.

In addition, the ministry promised that it will order Nippon Telegraph & Telephone and its future competitors to disclose all information about such formulas, so that foreign makers will know how to design their machinery to work in Japan. Procedures for testing will be published by June 1, the ministry also promised.

Although the United States asked that three of the 12 standards that remain in force also be dropped, Abelson said that “it appears that . . . equity will be established in regulatory procedures and that users here will be able to choose equipment and protocols freely.”

However, he added, “In 5 1/2 years of dealing with Japan, I’ve learned that one never says anything is completed until it is completed.”

Problems Remain

Clyde Prestowitz, counselor to Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, said that the breakthrough does not solve all of the problems in telecommunications trade and that talks on other issues will continue.

John J. McDonnel, vice president of the U.S. Electronic Industries Assn.’s telecommunications group who took part in the four days of negotiations here, hailed the accord as “a unique achievement.”

As a result of it, McDonnel said, “they (the Japanese) are not regulating any more than we regulate in the United States.”

“It would be no problem for an American company, with very minor modifications, to take any existing American equipment and have it technically qualified to be sold in the Japanese market,” McDonnel said.

He said he had originally thought that persuading Japan to grant such reciprocity would be impossible.