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Japan, US to

sign car pact

this month TOKYO: Japan and the United States are expected to sign an agreement on their car and car parts trade this month, an official of Tokyo's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said.

The two countries announced a deal on expanding foreign access to Japan's car and car parts market at the end of June, but the details and wording of the pact have still to be decided.

The MITI official told Reuters progress had been made on the details recently, allowing an agreement to be signed by the end of this month.

The MITI official reiterated that the accord would not set numerical targets for progress in expanding sales of U.S. cars and car parts to Japan or Japanese companies.

The economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the pact would set "objective criteria" for measuring progress in 17 areas, including foreign car sales in Japan, foreign dealerships in Japan, exports of foreign car parts to Japan, and purchases of U.S. parts by Japanese car companies' U.S. factories. -Reuter