Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507050056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor announced his office would investigate allegations made by Eastman Kodak Co. that Fuji, Japan's largest film manufacturer, had, with the help of the Japanese government, erected a web of complex barriers that had cost Kodak $5.6 billion in sales in the Japanese market.
Calling it ``critical that U.S. firms achieve full access to Japan's market,'' Kantor announced the administration would pursue a case against Japan under a provision of U.S. law known as Section 301.
The new case came less than a week after the United States and Japan settled a bitter Section 301 fight involving autos and auto parts. That agreement came just hours before record trade sanctions against Japanese luxury cars were scheduled to take effect.
In the film case, the United States will first ask for consultations with the Japanese government. Those negotiations can take up to a year, but if there is no agreement, the administration has the power to levy punitive tariffs on Japanese products.
While President Clinton hailed last week's auto deal as a historic market-opening agreement that would result in thousands of American jobs, critics have charged the administration settled for a toothless deal with no enforcement powers.
``The final agreement is vague, unenforceable, non-binding - in short, it is virtually empty,'' Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, a Republican candidate for president, said in a floor speech Friday.
``Even Neville Chamberlain got a piece of paper to wave around when he got home. We didn't even get that,'' Patrick Buchanan, another Republican presidential candidate, complained Sunday. He was referring to the British prime minister who sought to appease Adolf Hitler before World War II.
Kodak, which spent a year and $1 million assembling its case against Fuji, welcomed the administration's decision Monday. Kodak's president, George M.C. Fisher, said his company's goal is not retaliation against Japan but the opportunity to compete fairly.
``We are one step closer to finally correcting years of anti-competitive behavior in Japan,'' Fisher said in a statement.
Fuji attacked the Kodak case as ``a heavy-handed attempt to shift the blame from Kodak's own poor business decisions. ... Fuji's success relative to Kodak in Japan has been determined by fair competition and consumer choice.''
Many of the allegations in the film case mirror charges lodged by U.S. automakers that Japan's ``keiretsu'' system of interlocking relationships among Japanese companies and cozy relations with the Japanese government work to keep out foreign products.
``All of these cases, whether it is auto parts or glass or semiconductors or film, are manifestations of a deeper problem, the anti-competitive practices in Japan that work to keep outsiders out of the market,'' said Clyde Prestowitz, a Reagan administration trade negotiator who now heads the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank.
by CNB