Tariffs, although reduced in the Uruguay Round. remain a significant impediment. Adoption of performance-based standards and building codes continues to be slow, and Japan still maintains a parallel unliberalized set of building standards for housing loans. Subsidies to the wood products industry still appear to be rising. The United States has consulted with Japan on these issues, and further consultations are planned later this year with a view to reaching agreement on ways to strengthen and enhance implementation. Under the 1992 U.S.-China Market Access Memorandum of Understanding, China committed to remove by October 1993 any unscientific phytosanitary standards on a number of agricultural items, including citrus and wheat.
China is a major potential market for U.S. citrus and wheat producers.
Despite further commitments on the part of China and repeated efforts by the U.S. to negotiate a resolution of these issues, China has yet to remove these unscientific restrictions. The United States and China are continuing bilateral discussions. The following practices were determined not to be appropriate for identification because they are already being addressed by other provisions of U.S. trade law, existing bilateral or multilateral agreements, or in trade negotiations with other countries, and progress is being made in addressing them. These practices do, however, remain significant trade negotiating objectives of the United States. The United States has had serious concerns regarding access to the Korean market for automobiles.