U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) office outlined reform recommend...

ministers in Singapore over weekend, USTR office in Washington said. Recommendations are part of Regulatory Reform & Competition Policy Initiative President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi began in June under U.S.-Japan Economic Partnership. Report said Japan had goal of building one of most advanced telecom network infrastructures by 2005. “Attempting to achieve this goal while at the same time maintaining and deepening competition, however, poses formidable policy challenges, given the susceptibility of advanced services to monopolization,” report said. USTR said U.S. urged Japan “to complete the process of instituting and implementing a procompetitive regime, rather than settle for something less.” Recommendations for Japan’s telecom sector included: (1) Eliminating or reducing filing requirements for competitive carriers, particularly wholesale carriers. (2) Creating independent telecom regulatory authority and eliminating govt. ownership of service providers. (3) Strengthening dominant carrier regulations to prevent “competitive abuses” by NTT and wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo. (4) Cutting high interconnection rates and reforming inefficient rate structure. (5) Continuing to facilitate access to infrastructure that competitors need to reach subscribers. (6) Evaluating whether “a universal service subsidy program is necessary and ensure that any proposed subsidies are competitively neutral.” (7) Analyzing how access to Internet services can be increased “not through regulation of international links but through enhanced competition in domestic bottlenecks.” On information technologies, recommendations included: (1) Ensuring transparency in new privacy laws and “promot[ing] a high level of consumer confidence in doing business online through the development of private sector self-regulatory initiatives.” (2) Ensuring that laws governing electronic transactions are technology- neutral and that U.S. and Japanese approaches for Internet- based payment systems “facilitate online transactions.” (3) Working jointly on e-education initiatives that complement Japan’s plans to expand PC-based Internet use in Japan’s education system. (4) Coordinating issues of international cooperation to protect integrity of Internet. Report also includes specific recommendations for Japan’s Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts & Telecommunications. They include obtaining needed legal authority from Diet to forbear “from applying legacy regulations where competition in a market or market segment permits user interests to be achieved without government intervention and where risks of competitive abuses or minimal.” U.S. also suggested substituting Internet-based public notifications for tariff filing requirements to replace services offered to general public.