APEC should supplement and strengthen the GATT and WTO framework. Any outcomes of liberalization in the APEC region should apply unconditionally to nations outside the region. How Japan should approach the APEC Osaka Meeting Push ahead with deregulation and lower tariff rates to expand imports and investment from abroad. Japan, the second largest economy in the world, must work to increase imports and investment from abroad. We must be an example to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region in regard to structuring open, transparent markets.
Deregulation is especially important.
The Japanese government should press ahead with deregulation in line with a policy of making unregulated commerce the rule and regulations the exception. Its deregulation program, which has been condensed to three years, from five, should be accelerated further. And it should broaden the program to include items that were left out when the program was drafted. Japan should implement the tariff reductions it agreed to in the Uruguay Round ahead of schedule. And it should lower tariffs on additional items.