If the named type is not in the current package then it must be in an accessible package and declared public, or a compile-time error occurs.

The error does not occurr.

============================= file pkgs040b.java
package javasoft.sqe.tests.java_spec.pkgs040a;

import java.io.PrintStream;

class pkgs040b {
   static public int val = 7;
}

============================= file pkgs040.java
package javasoft.sqe.tests.java_spec.pkgs040;

import java.io.PrintStream;
import javasoft.sqe.tests.java_spec.pkgs040a.pkgs040b;

public class pkgs040 {
  public static void main(String argv[]) {
     System.exit(run(argv,System.out));
  }
  public static int run(String argv[],PrintStream out) {
     if ( pkgs040b.val != 7) {
        out.println ( "not pass" );
        return 2;
     }
     return 0;
  }
}
=============================
compile both and run pkgs040