Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994 TAG: 9402170081
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Japan may say it is now in a "cooling-off period" with the United States over their serious disagreement on trade, and President Clinton may halfheartedly agree.
But if this is a cooling-off period, it would be interesting to see what hot times would be like.
It is appearing more and more likely that some type of retaliation will be handed down by Clinton in response to Japan's reluctance to open its markets to more foreign goods. The betting is that the United States will target a specific set of Japanese products.
Such a move is evident from the aggressive tone of key Clinton aides since Friday, when U.S.-Japan trade talks stalled. The attitude indicates that the United States is doing anything but sitting back, waiting for tempers to abate and plotting the next round of friendly talks, as Japan would like.
Remarks made by U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor during a press conference Tuesday hardly resembled statements aimed at soothing frayed nerves across the Pacific.
"I have noticed that some Japanese government officials are fond of blaming insufficient efforts, or a lack of competitive products, as a reason for limited success of foreign producers in Japan," Kantor said. "This excuse is false and disingenuous."
As he was announcing a "finding" that Japan had not lived up to several telecommunications agreements, Kantor further tarred Japan's credibility, saying, "This is a clear-cut and serious case of a failure by Japan to live up to its commitments . . . not just one, but in three agreements."
Kantor then gave a detailed, historical outline of U.S. attempts to open Japan's telecommunications market, concluding each point with the suggestion that Japan had purposely laid a trap so that the U.S. firm Motorola Inc. would fail to gain a foothold there.
At no point during the briefing did Kantor put on his diplomatic hat and say he looked forward to constructive talks that would resolve either the Motorola dispute or the broader one facing the two countries.
Kantor has not been alone in his invective.
Bowman Cutter, a trade adviser on Clinton's National Economic Council, told a group of U.S. and Japanese business leaders on Monday that the United States "is not going to sit idly by and do nothing" about Japan's trade imbalance any longer.
The administration had no plans "at the moment" to initiate new talks with Japan, Cutter said. That seems to leave only retaliation, although Cutter refused to discuss what actions Clinton might take.
And Wednesday, Clinton revealed that his economic and national security teams would submit a set of recommendations on Japan within the next few days, and that he would reveal his decision on those proposals shortly thereafter.
Clinton already has indicated a willingness to make trade a top priority in foreign policy, to the point of possibly sacrificing some key principles. A telling case of that may be his handling of China's most-favored-nation status.
While the final decision on China's status technically still hangs in the balance, Clinton has seemed to signal that selling more U.S. products abroad takes precedence over almost everything else, and that his administration was not about to cede burgeoning Asian markets to any competitors.
And so it goes with Japan. Expanding trade there means expanding jobs in the United States.
But for anybody aching for an old-fashioned out-and-out trade war between the United States and Japan, Cutter may have been trying to address that prospect earlier this week when he told reporters, "Ultimately, all [trade] disputes end through negotiation."
by CNB