Senators Urge Reprisals for Japanese Policy

The Senate Finance Committee today unanimously resolved to urge that President Reagan strike back sharply at Japan’s refusal to open its markets to U.S. products. Some members declared that the two nations are now in “a trade war.”

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), sponsor of the measure, said he is “through sending messages to the Japanese” that go unheeded and described his resolution as a step toward strong action “rather than the constant whining and complaining that we have now.”

Danforth told reporters the measure was needed to stiffen the Reagan Administration’s resolve to act, saying its position has been that “no matter what the Japanese do we’re just going to be a punching bag in this country.”

‘An Eye for an Eye’

“I hate to think that this is what we’re coming to--an eye for an eye,” Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), the committee chairman, said, “but that may be the only language they understand.”

The resolution would establish a “sense of Congress that the President should take all appropriate and feasible action within the power of the presidency” to enforce U.S.-Japanese trade agreements and end policies that close that nation’s markets to American products.

Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) warned that it would be “a mistake for this committee and this country to yield fully to the temptation of a binge of protectionism.” He said he backed the resolution as a more moderate approach than more forceful legislation urged by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) and others.