U.S., Japan End Intense Trade Talks With Compromise

U.S. and Japanese negotiators ended three days of complex and intensive trade talks today with a compromise that conference sources said will allow more American companies to enter Japanese retail markets.

The talks, which were to have ended Tuesday night, went for an additional 36 hours as the negotiators hammered out a deal on removing some of the “structural impediments” in Japan’s laws and society that have the effect of barring foreign competition.

In the compromise disclosed by conference sources today, the Japanese government committed itself to revise its laws governing retailers within one year, and to abolish the laws within three years.