Word: nontariff
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...Robert Strauss, President Carter's chief trade negotiator, warned that the dollar's slide could jeopardize American efforts to achieve deep slashes in tariffs and a reduction in nontariff barriers to trade in talks now going on in Geneva...
American businessmen have long been enraged and frustrated by what they consider a one-sided Japanese attitude on trade. While exporting furiously, the Japanese have put imported products through a thicket of protective tariffs and a maze of nontariff barriers ranging from quotas to stringent labeling requirements. One result: a GE refrigerator sells for $2,075 in Tokyo, compared with $1,289 in New York City. Little wonder, then, that many U.S. companies saw no point in even trying to crack the Japanese market...
American salesmen might be pardoned for awaiting proof that the Japanese are really interested in importing. Japan has slashed tariffs this year on 318 items, but the U.S. regards the nontariff barriers as more important. On them, there have been only two small signs of give. Tokyo has liberalized financing terms for imports, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry has ordered a study on how to simplify import documentation and inspection procedures...
Anyway, tariff cuts are no longer the only key to liberalizing trade. The Geneva negotiators will also try to dismantle many of the 800 to 850 NTMs (for "nontariff measures"), which are often deemed to be much more restrictive for international trade than tariffs themselves. NTMs range from straightforward quotas, to subtle and not-so-subtle local labeling requirements, to health, technical and environmental standards that can stop foreigners from freely entering another country's domestic market...
Among other things, the Japanese promised to abolish some nontariff barriers, eliminate certain export promotion measures, stockpile crude oil, liberalize foreign aid and speed up the growth rate of the Japanese economy from its present annual rate of 5.3% to 7% next year. A key provision calls for tariff reductions averaging 23% on 318 items, mostly industrial goods. For example, the 6.4% Japanese tariff on imported autos would be entirely eliminated. Tariffs on computers would be dropped from 13.5% to 10.5% and on color film from 16% to 11% -two important items. But quotas on the amount of beef that...