JAPAN

Annual Talks With EC to Focus on Industrial Policy: The European Community and Japan have agreed to hold annual talks on industrial cooperation, the European Commission said last week. The agreement was announced following talks in Brussels between Japanese Minister for International Trade and Industry Yoshiro Mori and EC Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann. The two sides agreed to meet alternately in Tokyo and Brussels to discuss industrial policy developments--including trade aspects--and to exchange information aimed at promoting business cooperation, the EC executive said in a statement. The meeting will be chaired by the MITI vice-minister for international affairs and the Commission’s director-general of internal market and industrial affairs.