The United States, while acknowledging there has been some progress, urged Japan on Wednesday to make further efforts to achieve deregulation in the runup to the upcoming Group of Seven meeting in Birmingham, Britain.
The U.S. delegation made the point during a vice ministerial-level meeting on deregulation in Tokyo, Japanese and U.S. officials said. They agreed to hold additional sessions for further consultations, either at the working level or higher, before their leaders meet in Birmingham in May at the summit meeting of the G-7 industrialized nations plus Russia, according to the officials.
Japan and the U.S. have been hoping to develop a package of commitments to deregulation by the respective nations prior to the summit. During Wednesday's meeting, the U.S. called for Japan to make a clear commitment to a more market-oriented pricing mechanism for telecommunication interconnection rates, which the U.S. claims is responsible for higher telecom charges in Japan.