NTT Procurement To Be Tracked After Pact Expires

ByJohn S. McClenahen Two U.S. high-tech trade associations are vowing to closely monitor Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's (NTT) procurement practices even after July 1st's scheduled expiration of a 1999 U.S.-Japan market-opening agreement. The Telecommunications Industry Assn., Arlington, Va., and the San Jose-based AeA (formerly the American Electronics Assn.) pledge to "vigorously monitor, on a quarterly basis and in close consultation with the U.S. government, NTT's procurement of competitive, foreign-supplied telecom equipment." Although they admit the 1999 agreement has produced some sales increases for U.S. suppliers, the industry groups claim that the overall results at NTT don't match the increases U.S. companies have recorded in the Japanese private telecom market or in other areas of the world.