
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 22, 1994                   TAG: 9402220032
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

JAPAN REFUSES TO SET TRADE GOALS

Japan is considering a plan to measure foreign access to its markets, but officials Monday emphasized once again that they wouldn't set specific targets sought by U.S. negotiators.

Trade ministry officials said they are willing to keep comparative statistics of factors affecting foreign access, such as the number of dealers that handle imported cars and government purchases of foreign products.

But they said the statistics won't refer to goals, as demanded by the United States.

Japan's rejection of the demands for benchmarks for U.S. products to measure success in opening Japanese markets led to the collapse of trade talks between their leaders in Washington two weeks ago. Japan says the U.S. demand violates the principle of free trade.

The United States has since threatened sanctions in an effort to reduce Japan's bilateral trade surplus, which hit a record $59.3 billion last year.

Government spokesman Masayoshi Takemura said Monday that the trade, finance and foreign ministers will meet this week to discuss measures to tackle the trade surplus.

Meanwhile, chief trade negotiator Koichiro Matsuura, who is deputy foreign minister for international affairs, told reporters Monday that Japan's most important task is to trim its trade surplus by opening its markets and promoting domestic growth rather than exports.

In the past, U.S. complaints that Japan's markets were closed drew heated denials from Japanese officials. Tokyo has argued that Japan's markets were as open as others, if not more so, and that Japanese consumers can't be forced to buy U.S. goods if they don't want to.

by CNB