WTO Panel On Japan:
Measures Affecting Photographic Film And Paper
      This document provides a brief overview and analysis of the submission by the Government of Japan in the WTO case on the Japanese photographic market.   The submission by the Government of Japan is a comprehensive, thoroughly documented, and overwhelming factual and legal document.   It establishes decisively that there were no measures by the Japanese Government that changed the competitive situation in the Japanese film and paper markets after Japan granted tariff concessions on film and paper in 1967, 1979, and 1994.
      Put more plainly, the Japanese film and paper markets are open.   The only trend in those markets for the last two decades has been toward further liberalization and more, not less, competition.
      The U.S. submission claims that as a result of various measures by the Government of Japan, imported film cannot get "on the shelf,"  "off the shelf,"  and "on more shelves" in Japan.   The Government of Japan cuts through these superficial U.S. claims to examine the real facts of the Japanese market, and to test whether the U.S. has proven its legal arguments under WTO rules.   On the facts and the law, Japan proves that the U.S. has no case.