INTERNATIONAL

U.S., Japan Sign Construction Accord: Resolving a bitter trade dispute, the agreement expands the ability of American construction companies to compete for public works projects in Japan. The pact increases to 40 the number of Japanese public construction projects that U.S. firms can bid on. It resolves a dispute that brought the Bush Administration close to imposing economic sanctions on Japan. U.S. negotiators had charged that close-knit cooperation among Japanese construction companies and rigged bidding had frozen U.S. companies out of Japan while Japanese firms were allowed free access to the U.S. market.