Japan and the United States will hold working- and high-level talks next week in Tokyo to follow up on a 1996 bilateral agreement that aims to promote deregulation of the Japanese insurance market and protect U.S. insurers operating here.
The U.S. Trade Representative is expected to raise doubts that Japan has fully implemented its deregulation commitments. The Finance Ministry insists that the decontrols have been proceeding as planned and there is no room for compromise. Friction may result if the USTR demands anything beyond the bilateral agreement to sacrifice deregulation for the interest of American firms, a ministry official said.
The upcoming talks mark the third such occasion since the two countries reached the agreement in December 1996. The accord obliges Japan, for instance, to permit differentiated-rate auto insurance products, deprive rating organizations of the power to set compulsory rates for nonlife insurers and approve new insurance products within 90 days.