Second Regular Session
Sixty-first General Assembly
LLS NO. R98-0877.01 RLH
STATE OF COLORADO
BY REPRESENTATIVES Owen and May;
also SENATOR Norton.
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 98-1021
WHEREAS, For many years, the U.S. Trade Representative
has reported in the National Trade Estimate Report on numerous
barriers to U.S. exports in the Japanese market; and
WHEREAS, Japan's policies to restrict market access
have perpetuated the chronic and seemingly intractable trade deficit
the United States has with Japan for more than three decades;
and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Trade Representative engaged over
the last several years in an intensive investigation of the Japanese
distribution system and its impact on U.S. exports; and
WHEREAS, On June 16, 1996, the U.S. Trade Representative
found that the government of Japan created and tolerated a market
structure that impedes U.S. exports of consumer photographic film
and paper; and
WHEREAS, The World Trade Organization agreements
do not provide a current basis to address the systematic Japanese
barriers found to exist by the U.S. Trade Representative; and
WHEREAS, The continued denial of market access in
Japan for U.S. exports through maintenance of a closed distribution
system and other liberalization countermeasures injures companies
and workers in this state; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives
of the Sixty-first General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein:
That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly,
call upon the federal government to take all necessary and appropriate
action to ensure that Japan establishes and maintains an open
and competitive market for U.S. exports.
Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Colorado delegation to the United States Congress.