Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9307110021
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
However, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa had barely finished exchanging handshakes and congratulations Saturday before the questions began.
While Clinton headed for the airport and an official visit to South Korea, U.S. and Japanese officials were holding competing briefings to explain just what was included in the agreement.
Those briefings served to highlight wide gaps between the two countries' positions.
U.S. officials said they viewed the 10-page agreement as Japan's commitment to make credible progress over the next few years to slash their trade surplus not only with America but also with the rest of the world.
To support that contention, the Americans pointed to Japan's pledge to pursue policies leading to a "highly significant decrease" in its trade surplus.
But Japanese negotiators did not succumb to American demands that they slash their trade surplus in half over the next three years.
Likewise, the Japanese fought off American attempts to require them to commit to setting numerical targets for sales of American and other foreign products in Japan.
The United States did come away with language stating that measuring progress in opening Japan's markets would be based on "sets of objective criteria, either qualitative or quantitative or both as appropriate, which will be established using relevant information and/or data that both governments will evaluate."
That essentially means both countries are left to fight it out, industry by industry, over what types of measurements will be acceptable.
During the course of the negotiations, the U.S. side repeatedly cited the success of a 1986 agreement in which the Japanese reluctantly agreed to boost the foreign share of computer chips sold in the Japanese market to 20 percent.
However, at Saturday's briefing, a top-ranking Japanese trade official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said bluntly, "If the U.S. demands numerical targets, we will reject the demand."
There also was debate about a supplemental portion of the agreement that was not available to reporters - two side letters that the countries are exchanging.
While American officials were mum about exactly what was in the side letters, the Japanese said they stake out each country's position on the sensitive topic of whether the United States can retaliate if Japan fails to live up to its commitments in the framework agreement.
American briefers said nothing in the agreement would prevent the United States from using its most potent trade weapon, a part of the law known as Section 301. That law allows the president to slap punitive tariffs on another country's products if the country erects unfair barriers against American products.
The Japanese said they will state emphatically in their side letter that if the United States threatens to use Section 301, Japan retains the right to simply stop negotiating in that particular area.
The disagreement raised questions about why the Clinton administration decided to push ahead with a deal with Miyazawa rather than wait to negotiate with the new government expected to take over after the Japanese elections on July 18.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration was worried that if it waited, it might not get as good an agreement from Miyazawa's successor.
Clinton himself alluded to the fact that plenty of tough negotiations lie ahead as the administration tries to craft market-opening deals in industries ranging from satellites to automobiles.
But he insisted that U.S. negotiators will be able to achieve "specific timetables and objective criteria" for measuring success in opening Japan's markets.
The official who led the negotiating effort, W. Bowman Cutter, was cautious about the task ahead.
"If we persevere, if we manage this correctly, if we stay with it, results will flow from it," he said. "But it depends on our perseverance."
by CNB