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The European Community remains identified for discrimination in heavy electrical and telecommunications equipment. We recently came to an agreement for the heavy electrical sector. We are awaiting EC Council of Ministers approval of that agreement, which should occur in early May. The EC did not agree to waive the Utilities Directive for telecommunications equipment, therefore we intend to impose sanctions.
In addition to the actions with respect to Japan and the EC, Kantor expressed concern with specific procurement practices in the following areas:
- Australia maintains a restricted-membership, preselected "Information Systems Panel" for all federal procurements of information systems technology. The criteria for membership on this panel may include local investment and the ability to export from Australia;
- China's procurement practices remain, for the most part, secretive and inaccessible to foreign suppliers. However, China has committed to increase the transparency of its trade system by publishing rules and regulations related to trade. The changes are due to be implemented in the Fall of 1993.
- The United States has continuing concerns with Japanese procurement practices in the supercomputer, computer and telecommunications sectors.
- Our concerns in the supercomputer area are being addressed in the section 306 monitoring action that I announced today.
- Our concerns in the computer area involve the inability of the U.S. and Japan to implement a statistical monitoring system to evaluate progress in our bilateral Computer Agreement. We are addressing this problem in a review mechanism provided for in the agreement.
- U.S. businesses have expressed frustration with the lack of opportunities outside of the NTT Agreement in the Japanese telecommunications market. We will continue to address these issues bilaterally.
- We are also concerned that a variety of countries have entered into trade or economic agreements with the European Community that require or might in the future require those countries to adopt the discriminatory provisions of the EC's Utilities Directive. We intend to monitor their actions over the coming year and review the situation in our annual Title VII review next year.
