‘Trade War’ With Japan

While visiting Japan last year I did see two American-made automobiles, and that’s one of the big points about our trade with Japan. Worse yet, the Japanese play the waiting game and have successfully stalled opening their markets, even with telecommunications equipment.

Perhaps President Reagan decided to put U.S. auto workers heads on the line, hoping for concessions from the Japanese, and he finally decided to send trade envoys over there to bargain the point. That’s something, when it’s not fully understood why the Japanese stubbornly refuse to be fair.

At least the Senate voted 92 to 0 to give our workers and industries a vote of confidence. Unfortunately, too much erosion has taken place in our smokestack industries, and those manufacturers, having once made the decision to quit producing goods from those industries, probably won’t start all over again.

Perhaps the bottom line might come from the fact that once the majority of our smokestack factories have been abandoned and we need mass production of war material will we be expected to buy those war machines from friend or foe?

MILFORD C. WALKER

West Covina