Japan to Compile ‘Voluntary’ Trade Package : Relations: Bid to trim surplus will focus on imports, investments, deregulation.

Under the threat of U.S. sanctions, Japan announced Thursday that it will compile a broad package of “voluntary” measures to trim its trade surplus. The package will focus on promotion of imports and foreign investment, deregulation, anti-monopoly enforcement and fairer government procurement.

“We must draw up more concrete and visible measures as soon as possible,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Masayoshi Takemura said after Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa held an emergency meeting with his top trade negotiators to discuss steps Japan could take to head off a possible trade war. “I would stress that the prime minister is serious when he says ‘urgent,’ ” Takemura said.

Takemura urged that Washington “act cautiously in deciding whether to implement unilateral measures” against Japan. He indicated that Japan hopes to announce details of the market-opening package before finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven industrial nations meet in Frankfurt on Feb. 26.

The announcement was concurrent with the release of a report showing that the U.S. trade deficit with Japan grew to almost $60 billion in 1993, the worst gap ever.

The announcement was met with criticism from U.S. Ambassador Walter Mondale, who said the Japanese government’s four-point program isn’t good enough.

“What we want is an open market,” he said in a forceful manner that seemed to depart sharply from past postures of counseling patience. “We have not seen anything along that line. The fact is that the government is not deregulating, not opening up the market.”

Mondale said vague promises of deregulation must be followed up with concrete action.

Measures under consideration by Japan include steps that had been under discussion in trade talks with the United States. Those negotiations failed to reach an agreement in time for the recent Washington summit between Hosokawa and President Clinton. Measures under consideration include actions to improve the speed and openness of government procurement of medical and telecommunications equipment and changes aimed at making it easier for foreign companies to penetrate Japan’s insurance market.

Government officials also said Hosokawa may send a special envoy to Washington to try to head off trade sanctions.

However, Japanese officials stood firm Thursday on a dispute over access to Japan’s cellular phone market by Motorola Inc. Washington accuses Japan of having broken a 1989 agreement on the dispute and has taken the first step toward imposing retaliatory sanctions.

Masahito Tani, deputy minister of posts and telecommunications, said Japan will not negotiate under the threat of retaliation.

There is little Japan can do to avert the threat of U.S. sanctions in the cellular phone market, Futoshi Shirai, vice minister of posts and telecommunications, told reporters Thursday.