GENEVA (Kyodo) Opening the Japanese economy to international competition would improve productivity and much needed growth prospects, World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said Tuesday.
"The example of Japan shows that when your economy is open, you have high productivity, and when your economy is closed, you have low productivity," Lamy told the Japanese media prior to the day's release of the WTO's review of Japan's trade policies.
"In Japan, as compared to other countries, the difference in productivity between industry, agriculture and services is extremely important," he said, referring to the openness of the former to international competition compared with the latter two.