dti
the department for Enterprise
RESTRICTED
Europe. I urged them to be equally positive importers into Japan, through their trading subsidiary which is
the agent for Rolls Royce aero engines.
I also pressed for the removal of the few remaining obstacles the import duties on leather and on sugar confectionery and the regulations affecting foreign firms in pension and investment fund management, and through further liberalisation of domestic insurance business. John Redwood will be pressing these financial questions when he visits Tokyo next month.
In discussions with the British Chamber of Commerce, with the large number of quality clothing manufacturers taking part in a full to capacity exclusively UK exhibition, with representatives of our securities and insurance companies and with a number of manufacturers, several with successful local production, it emerged that they saw the challenges as ones of intense commercial competition rather than government barriers.
They were generally confident of their ability to compete on their own merits and aware of the need to make the effort to succeed in Japan if they were to remain internationally competitive.
Their main request was that we make these points to their own headquarters in the UK and to the many firms not yet effectively established in Japan.
My conclusion is that, while we have made some real commercial progress in Japan, there is much more to do in exploiting the enormous opportunities, and substantial challenges, which Japan's continuing economic success presents. We can help by encouraging firms' awareness of Japan as a strategic opportunity and
RESTRICTED
Recycled Pr
Page 15Page 16