4 March 1999: A US Senate Judiciary subcommittee has called on the Japanese government to provide official testimony before it on Japan“s flat glass market, according to a recent report.
Senator Mik…
4 March 1999: A US Senate Judiciary subcommittee has called on the Japanese government to provide official testimony before it on Japan“s flat glass market, according to a recent report. Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Business Rights and Competition, reportedly sent a co-signed letter in early February to Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry Kaoru Yosano, seeking a witness representing the Japanese government on the matter at the subcommittee“s public hearing scheduled for 13 April. The letter did not name a specific official or specify a witness“ official position in the government for the testimony, according to sources within the subcommittee. The Japanese government has yet to formalize its response because a Japanese government official“s testimony before a US congressional committee is quite unusual, a Japanese diplomatic source said. The sources said the planned hearing is not designed solely for Japan-related topics, but will address trade issues with the European Union as well. The US government and Congress have long complained that the Japanese flat glass market is closed to foreign products, alleging that such conventional commercial practices as the “keiretsu” corporate groupings make distribution channels exclusionary.