U.S. Warns Japanese on Car Exports
The Reagan Administration complained today that a Japanese plan to limit auto exports to the United States--but at a level 25% higher than last year--would “not be any restraint at all.”
U.S. officials also warned that Tokyo should not expect to use the revised auto restraints as a substitute for opening Japanese markets to American goods.
Japanese government sources said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry plans to negotiate with Japan’s 11 major car makers on quotas for shipments to the United States in the sales year beginning April 1 as a way of easing a $34.7-billion trade surplus with America.
President Reagan, who has been pressuring Japan on a variety of trade issues, had already acceded to the end of four years of “voluntary restraints” that limited to 1.85 million the number of cars shipped to the United States each year.
Under the reported new Japanese plan, the export ceiling would be boosted 450,000 to 2.3 million. The trade ministry estimates that Japanese auto makers would sell 2.7 million vehicles in America without any restraints.
Figure Equal to Capacity
A senior Administration official, however, said the 2.3-million figure is the “virtual capacity” of Japanese plants to turn out cars for export.
“In reality, if these figures hold true, (they) would not be any restraint at all on the part of the Japanese,” said the official, who spoke on condition he not be named.
Warning that the Japanese should not expect to use the continuation of restraints as a lever in other trade talks, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said, “It’s the President’s position that export restraints are not an acceptable substitute for market-opening. Export restraints are contrary to both the spirit and objective of the agreement between the President and (Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.)”
Reagan and Nakasone agreed in early January to make “a bold step” toward opening Japan’s markets to U.S. electronics, telecommunications, and medical and forest products.
No Trade-Off in Mind
But talks on those four areas have not produced much movement, the U.S. official said.
While the official said “we don’t have any problem” with increased auto exports, he added, “We don’t want them (the Japanese) to regard it as a trade-off. There’s never been a quid pro quo in our mind.”
If the Japanese expect such a trade-off, the official said, “it is not in the spirit of the discussions” between Reagan and Nakasone.
