JAPAN OPENS HOME MARKET TO U.S. FISH

  Japan has agreed to drop barriers to
  American-caught herring and pollock, opening the way for
  shipments that could reach 300 mln dlrs annually, U.S. Trade
  Representative Clayton Yeutter announced.
      Yeutter said the accord was reached after extensive
  bilateral negotiations that ended earlier today in Tokyo.
      He said the Commerce Department estimated U.S. shipments of
  processed pollock products and herring should rise to 85 mln
  dlrs this year and to more than 300 mln dlrs annually in later
  years.
      There was no immediate assessment of the value of current
  U.S. shipments, but officials said the pact would lift quotas
  to the point that Americans would be able to ship nearly all
  the pollock and herring ordered by Japanese firms.
      At the same time, Yeutter said Washington was temporarily
  suspending a complaint with the General Agreement on Tariffs
  and Trade (GATT) that Japan was unfairly curbing imports of the
  two fish.
      He said the complaint would be reviewed later this year
  after an assessment to see if Japan lived up to the agreement.
  

