Enact mutual recognition agreements with high-standard countries
What the document says“The U.S. should enact mutual recognition agreements for a wide variety goods with the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia”
Mutual recognition means accepting another country's approvals and standards as equivalent. The essay says the benefits would be especially large for pharmaceuticals because the drug approval process is slower and more expensive than in other countries without being any safer, and that conservatives should embrace policies that increase competition while reducing the regulatory footprint.
What the document actually says“The U.S. should enact mutual recognition agreements for a wide variety goods with the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia”
Accept the safety checks of countries with standards like ours.
A product approved in Japan must be checked again here. This essay says that is a waste. It says we should accept their checks.
Implementing the United States-Japan Agreement
2025-09-04 · 90 FR 43535
Executive Order 14345 of September 4, 2025 implements a framework agreement with Japan, one of the five countries the essay names, and records that Japan is working to accept for sale United States manufactured and United States safety certified passenger vehicles without additional testing. That is recognition of another country's approvals, which is the mechanism the proposal describes. The fit is narrow in three ways: the recognition runs one direction, with Japan accepting United States certification rather than the United States accepting Japanese approvals; it covers passenger vehicles rather than a wide variety of goods; and the order's treatment of pharmaceuticals, the essay's main example, is a tariff rate of zero percent on generic drugs and their ingredients, not any acceptance of a foreign drug approval. The order's substance is a 15 percent tariff framework, which the proposal does not ask for.
An order of September 4, 2025 puts a trade deal with Japan into effect. Japan is to accept cars built and cleared here with no new tests. That is the kind of deal the chapter wants. But it runs one way, covers cars alone, and the order is mostly a tariff plan.