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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.