Tentative US/JApan agreement reached on NTT rate cut. Apx 22% in two years plus more later after that.
JOhnG
Japan, U.S. reach agreement
on cut to NTT connection fee
Although negotiations lasted into the night,
sources said Japan and the United States
reached a basic agreement earlier Tuesday on a
trade dispute over interconnection fees charged
by NTT Corp.
The two sides have agreed to effectively cut
fees by about 22.5 percent in two years
followed by substantial reductions thereafter in
the charges that NTT imposes on competitors to
access its local circuits, sources said.
Chief negotiators from the two parties were to
meet Tuesday to finalize an accord, after
working out its specific wording, the sources
said.
The Japanese side is led by Deputy Foreign
Minister Yoshiji Nogami. His U.S. counterpart
is Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Richard
Fisher.
The NTT fee issue was the biggest stumbling
block in Japan-U.S. deregulation talks.
Japan, in an earlier compromise, proposed a
22.5 percent cut over three years. Its initial
proposal was for the same cut, but over four
years.
In the belief that high interconnection charges
are barring foreign access to Japan's
telecommunications services market,
Washington demanded a 22.5 percent reduction
in the first two years and up to 41.1 percent at
the earliest possible opportunity.
The basic agreement is essentially in line with
the demands of U.S. negotiators, who do not
appear to have altered their position since the
latest round of talks started on July 10, the
sources said.
The Liberal Democratic Party's telecom
industry lobby as well as NTT, which does not
want to see its revenues cut, insisted on a 22.5
percent reduction over three years, the sources
said.
Faced with this pressure, officials of the Posts
and Telecommunications Ministry devised a
proposal to have the rate reduced by 25 percent
over three years, with a 22.5 percent cut in the
first two years, assuming NTT's call traffic
shows stronger growth in the years ahead.
For the period after the third year, or fiscal
2002, Japanese negotiators offered to work out
measures, including a revision of the law
governing NTT, with the aim of effecting a
substantial cut adding up to an eventual 41
percent, the sources said.
Negotiators started bilateral talks in Tokyo on
the issue July 10, hoping to resolve the dispute
before Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and
President Bill Clinton meet later this week
ahead of the Group of Eight summit that begins
Friday in Okinawa.
In the meantime, a U.S. Embassy spokesman
said reports that the U.S. was close to caving in
to Japan's position were wrong, after Monday's
self-imposed deadline passed with no accord.
"Reports that the NTT talks have concluded are
premature," he told reporters. "While progress
has been encouraging, reports that they had
reached an agreement came as a complete
surprise to the U.S. negotiator. The talks
continue," he said.
"Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Richard
Fisher has agreed to stay on one additional day
to see if the talks can be brought to a successful
conclusion."
The Japan Times: July 19, 2000 |
