Japan and the United States will begin a two-day meeting today in Tokyo over foreign access to the nation's flat-glass market -- one of the pending areas of trade disputes between the two countries, officials said Tuesday.
The meeting, between officials from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, is the sixth of its kind to review implementation of the 1995 U.S.-Japan Flat Glass Agreement. The deal is designed for the two nations to cooperate in enhancing foreign manufacturers' access to the Japanese market. Such followup meetings are to be concluded at the end of the year under the agreement.
During the talks, the two sides will exchange opinions on up-to-date market trends, while the U.S. is expected to urge Japan to make the domestic glass distribution network fairer and more transparent.
"Some progress has been made under our glass agreement, but fundamentally, little has changed in terms of the distribution system for flat glass in Japan," said a U.S. government official on Tuesday. "In particular, we remain concerned there is great potential for anti-competitive behavior that stems from close ties between manufacturers and distributors in the sector."