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As U.S.-Japan Auto Agreement Expires, Japan Auto Industry Urges Moving Beyond Old-Style Confrontation

29 December 2000

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 The U.S.-Japan Auto Framework Agreement, the result of 
one of the most intense trade disputes of the last two decades, is set to expire 
on December 31.  As attention is drawn to the future, the Japan Automobile 
Manufacturers Association (JAMA) in its year-end edition of Japan Auto Trends 
released today, urges the US auto parts industry to move beyond the old-style 
confrontation that led to the dispute five years ago.

    "Artificial targets and commercial mandates are contrary to free markets
and would threaten the cooperation and globalization that have changed the
world's automobile industry," said William C. Duncan, General Director of JAMA
USA.  "These changes include Japanese investment overseas, recent major equity
investments by US companies in Japanese auto manufacturers, growing investment
by U.S. auto parts companies in Japan, global parts purchasing by Japanese
auto firms and new vehicles distribution methods in Japan.

    "The transformation of the U.S.-Japan auto relationship reflects the wise
decision five years ago to retreat from market-distorting mechanisms aimed at
arbitrarily reducing trade deficits," Duncan said.  "The automobile industry,
be it in America, Canada, Europe or Japan has moved far beyond the national
boundaries that defined it even five years ago."

    This issue of Japan Auto Trends also reports on how Japanese Government
officials are balancing two priorities:  the promotion of common world-wide
safety and environmental standards with the need to satisfy the Japanese
public's growing concern to move quickly on new environmental standards,
particularly for diesel exhaust emissions.

    Japan Auto Trends describes the impact of a new ban on cell phone use
while driving.  Initial data suggests a 61 percent drop in the number of cell
phone-related traffic accidents following the ban, which was imposed by the
Japanese legislature last April.  In the six months before the ban went into
effect there were 1,473 cell phone-related accidents compared to 580 during
the six months following the beginning of enforcement.

    The newsletter also details the rising popularity of environmental
friendly vehicles, including hybrid, electric, natural gas and methanol-
powered cars, as well as developments with fuel-cell vehicles.

    Japan Auto Trends quarterly Executive Highlights features Osamu Suzuki,
Chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation.  Suzuki talks of the future of the
company, particularly its relationship with GM.  In May the 70-year-old
chairman stepped aside as president of the company his family founded in 1920.
However, Suzuki indicates he will still be active.  "I want to work until I
die," he says, "I want to die in battle."

    JAMA, located in Tokyo, has offices in Brussels, Singapore and Washington
D.C.