This report discusses the G-20, an international forum for discussing and coordinating economic policies among major advanced and emerging economies. Previous summits have, for example, focused on financial regulatory reform, global imbalances, funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), voting power of emerging economies in international financial institutions, and fossil fuel subsidies.

This report discusses the development in global warming as a global issue. Topics include issues that have arisen regarding the ETS and considerations for cap-and-trade.

As a result of an initiative by Australia in 1989, the United States joined with eleven other Asia/Pacific nations in creating APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization. This report discusses the annual Ministerial Meeting of APEC in Seattle, held from November 17 - 19, 1993.

Both the Bush Administration and the new Japanese Government headed by Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa had given considerable importance to the President,s planned trip to Tokyo in late November, now postponed in the interest of attending to domestic concerns.

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Japan-U.S. relations are more uncertain and subject to greater strain today than at any time since World War II. Longstanding military allies and increasingly interdependent economic partners, Japan and the United States have worked closely together to build a strong, multifaceted relationship based on democratic values and interests in world stability and development. But Japan today is our foremost economic and technological competitor.

Japan, as an issue, has entered the debate over U.S. approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in several ways. The Clinton Administration has argued that Americans should support NAFTA because if it fails to pass Congress, Japan will rush to negotiate a similar arrangement with Mexico. Proponents of NAFTA also have argued that since Japan opposes NAFTA (because of its presumed protectionism and the benefits it provides to North American businesses), it must be "good for America." Opponents of NAFTA argue that the agreement would provide opportunities for Japanese manufacturers to invest in Mexico and export unfettered to the American market. Also, they assert that NAFTA would be like previous trade agreements, particularly with Japan, that have ended up hurting the U.S. economy. In either case, the effects of NAFTA on Japan would likely be small.

On May 25, 1989, President Bush proposed that the United States undertake the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII), a series of discussions with Japan to address certain fundamental Japanese economic policies and business practices that the United States claims impede U.S. exports and investments. The SII was, in part, a Bush Administration response to the stubborn U.S. trade deficit and other problems that have caused friction in the U.S. trading relationship with Japan. It was also a response to congressional pressure to deal more aggressively with Japanese unfair trade practices and to calls from critics to adopt a "managed" trade policy toward Japan.

The U.S.-Japan framework talks were initiated in July 1993. The automotive negotiations between Japan and the United States focused on sales of U.S. vehicles in Japan; sales of U.S.-made original equipment parts in Japan and to Japanese transplants in the United States; and deregulation of the market for replacement parts in Japan. An unresolved dispute over shock absorbers and other replacement parts resulted in the United States launching a formal investigation of Japanese market barriers to imported car parts under Section 301 on Oct. 1, 1994.

Trade relations between the United States and Japan in the 1980s were marked by U.S. efforts to pressure Japan to absorb increasingly greater amounts of U.S. exports. The United States sought to improve its steadily worsening bilateral trade deficit with Japan by negotiating to lower barriers to U.S. exports through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Market Oriented, Sector Selective Talks, the Super 301 process, the Structural Impediments Initiative, and other bilateral fora. The United States succeeded in having Japan take some market-opening measures, and despite fluctuations, U.S. exports to Japan of most of the products which were the subject of negotiations by the two countries between 1985 and 1990 have increased.

This report discusses the summit held by President Bill Clinton and other leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on November 19, 1995. The report discusses the primary reason for the summit, an Action Agenda intended to lead to free and open trade and investment among its members. The report also discusses how APEC countries were divided on certain issues going into this summit.

This report discusses the issues of the U.S.-Japanese trade relations of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, and the Clinton Administration.

With Japan the United States has had one of its most important, and, at the same time, one of its most difficult, trading rela- tionships. Japan ranks second to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. It is also the largest single source of imports to the United States.

This report discusses the relationship between the United States and Japan, including Japanese efforts to support the U.S. in the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and the two countries' economic ties, especially with regards to the recent economic downturn. This report also discusses the general political atmosphere of Japan, including the recent and ongoing political turmoil in Tokyo.

This report discusses the G-20, an international forum for discussing and coordinating economic policies among major advanced and emerging economies. Previous summits have, for example, focused on financial regulatory reform, global imbalances, funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), voting power of emerging economies in international financial institutions, and fossil fuel subsidies.

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