Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 4, 1994 TAG: 9403040152
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
By executive order, the president revived an expired provision of U.S. law known as Super 301. The president said he would put forward by Sept. 30 a target list of countries deemed to have erected the most harmful barriers to American goods and services.
If negotiations fail to remove those barriers, the administration would have the power to impose punitive tariffs of up to 100 percent against imports from those nations. The amount targeted would equal the sales being lost by American producers.
"This administration is committed to opening markets for high-quality goods and services produced by competitive American workers," the president said as he announced his decision. "This action will help us reach our objective: open markets that will create better jobs and increase wages at home and abroad."
Administration officials denied that they were trying to start a trade war with Japan, but they said the United States would not relent in its efforts to open Japan's markets as a way of narrowing a record $59.3 billion trade imbalance between the two nations.
The administration already has the power to initiate market-opening investigations and impose tariffs if the talks fail to produce results under the regular Section 301 of the 1974 trade act.
"We regret that the United States made a decision to revive Super 301," Seiichi Kondo, a spokesman for the Japanese embassy, said in Washington. "We certainly hope the United States will recognize the inherent dangers" in imposing unilateral trade sanctions.
Other Japanese officials have warned about retaliation on the part of Japan if the United States slaps punitive tariffs on Japanese products, a development that would spark a full-blown trade war between the world's two largest economies.
by CNB