A group of U.S. lawmakers has urged President Bill Clinton to put pressure on Japan to open its flat-glass market when he meets with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in Tokyo later this month, congressional officials said Monday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bill Roth and three ranking committee members -- Pat Moynihan, Charles Grassley and Max Baucus -- made the appeal in a letter to Clinton dated June 15. A copy of the letter was made available to reporters Monday.
"When you meet with the Japanese prime minister, we strongly urge you to raise both the issues of American access to Japan's market for flat glass and Japan's general attitude toward our bilateral trading relationship," it said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a report released in May that the U.S. goal of opening the flat-glass market remains unfulfilled under a bilateral accord that expired at the end of 1999.