Carla Hills Asks Japan to Speed Economic Plan

U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills today urged Japan to come up with a plan for reforming its business practices by next summer.

Hills, visiting Tokyo to press for action on a wide range of trade issues, criticized behavior by Japanese companies that she said obstructs foreign goods and investment.

“There is a strong feeling of inequity where the American market is open and counterpart markets overseas are closed,” she told a news conference.

“Investors can come and buy a store, a farm, a business or stock in America, but Americans, when they come overseas, may not buy easily without restrictions the same store, farm, stock or business.”

Hills attacked business practices such as Japanese firms’ alleged tendency to buy almost exclusively from other domestic firms, discrimination against foreign investors, and “patent flooding,” or taking out so many patents related to a foreign innovation that the inventor cannot sell his product in Japan.

Hills said the United States and Japan should develop plans for removing obstacles to trade and take initial steps to implement some reforms by next summer.

Washington wants Japan to help reduce its huge bilateral trade surplus by reforming its economic structure to promote domestic consumption and absorb more foreign goods.

Japan says the United States should correct its own economic weaknesses, including its low savings rate and relatively short-sighted corporate management.