US Urges Japan to Set Up Independent Body on Postal Privatization
The United States on Thursday called on Japan to create an independent committee to ensure fair competition between Japan Post and private companies.
In a meeting to discuss the countries’ regulatory reform and competition policy, the United States urged Japan to “establish a truly level playing field” with private companies in the process of privatizing Japan Post.
The U.S. government called on Japan to prohibit the privatized postal financial institutions from launching new insurance and lending services until equal competitive conditions are established.
The United States urged Japan to set up the independent committee to ensure that the equal conditions are maintained throughout the privatization process.
Among other issues, Washington touched on Japan’s plant quarantine system. It asked Japan to adopt a more internationally accepted plant quarantine system and apply the least restrictive measures to ensure safe trade.
For its part, Japan urged the United States to delay its introduction of the biometric passport program by one year to October 2006.
Japan also called on the U.S. government to quickly correct practices that the World Trade Organization judged violating its rules.
Such practices include the Byrd Amendment, an antidumping law that allows the U.S. government to redistribute antidumping and countervailing duties collected from foreign firms to allegedly damaged domestic firms.
