[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 262 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 262

  To state the sense of the Senate that the Government of the United 
    States should place priority on formulating a comprehensive and 
 strategic policy of engaging and cooperating with Japan in advancing 
 science and technology for the benefit of both Nations as well as the 
                           rest of the world.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 30, 1998

    Mr. Roth (for himself and Mr. Bingaman) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  To state the sense of the Senate that the Government of the United 
    States should place priority on formulating a comprehensive and 
 strategic policy of engaging and cooperating with Japan in advancing 
 science and technology for the benefit of both Nations as well as the 
                           rest of the world.

Whereas advances in science and technology will continue to underlie the 
        prosperity and security of the United States and the international 
        community into the next century;
Whereas the United States and Japan are global leaders in science and 
        technology;
Whereas the rapid pace of innovation creates growing linkages between science 
        and technology and bilateral relations in security and trade;
Whereas the Government of Japan, through its 1996 Basic Plan for Science and 
        Technology, made science and technology a higher priority area of 
        investment for the Government of Japan;
Whereas the Supplemental Budget of the Government of Japan for 1998 will result 
        in more than a 21 percent increase in the Government of Japan's support 
        for science and technology this year;
Whereas advances in Japanese science and technology are increasingly at the 
        global frontier;
Whereas cooperation between the United States and Japan in science and 
        technology holds the promise of better assuring human health and 
        nutrition, enhancing the quality of the environment, lessening the 
        impact of natural and man-made disasters, providing for more productive 
        agriculture, stimulating discoveries in the basic processes of life and 
        matter, expanding supplies of energy, furthering advances in space 
        exploration, improving manufacturing processes, and strengthening 
        communications through electronic language translation;
Whereas productive collaboration with Japan has increased due to negotiated 
        frameworks such as the bilateral Agreement for Cooperation in Science 
        and Technology and efforts by the Government of Japan to invite larger 
        numbers of U.S. scientists to participate in university, government and 
        industrial research in Japan;
Whereas the flow of science and technology from the United States to Japan is 
        nonetheless still larger than the reverse due partly to barriers Japan 
        has erected to the outward flow of scientific and technological 
        information and data, as well as barriers to the inward flow of foreign 
        investment and foreign participation in industrial organizations such as 
        consortia and associations;
Whereas the application of rigorous scientific methods to the development of 
        standards and regulations can help mitigate certain market access and 
        trade problems; and
Whereas Japan's treatment of scientific and technological advances continues to 
        handicap U.S. innovators in Japan due to inadequate intellectual 
        property protection: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the Government of the United States should place 
        priority on formulating a comprehensive and strategic policy of 
        engaging and cooperating with Japan in advancing science and 
        technology for the benefit of both Nations as well as the rest 
        of the world;
            (2) among other goals, that policy should aim to promote 
        strategic cooperation on areas that further U.S. policy 
        interests in science and technology; more balanced flows of 
        scientific and technological information and personnel between 
        the United States and Japan; more rigorous application of 
        scientific methods in the development of standards and 
        regulations to promote efficient technological progress and 
        mitigate trade problems; and more equitable intellectual 
        property protection; and
            (3) the Government of the United States should integrate 
        this strategic policy into current and future science and 
        technology agreements with the Government of Japan.
                                 <all>