The next U.S. president should challenge Japan to create an "open marketplace" in the two countries free of tariffs and with minimal regulatory barriers, the Council on Foreign Relations said in a report due out Friday.
The report, authored by Bruce Stokes, a senior fellow at the New York-based think tank, said the two countries should seize the opportunity of a new administration in Washington from January and the new Cabinet in Tokyo to recast their economic relationship.
"The time is ripe for a bold new initiative to recast the U.S.-Japan economic partnership for the 21st century," Stokes said.
The report, a council project jointly chaired by Sen. John Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Rep. Amo Houghton of New York, said the two countries should try to work out an agreement by 2010.