Trade Representative Cites Agreements With 60 Firms : Yeutter Claims Progress Made on Japan Trade
Promising that the Reagan Administration will soon take steps to narrow the $150-billion annual U.S. trade deficit, Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said Sunday that, during his recent trip to Tokyo, he obtained new commitments from the Japanese to open some additional markets to U.S. goods in the near future.
“I really am convinced now that we finally have the attention of the Japanese on the trade issue and, I believe, a commitment to do some things and do some things promptly in terms of opening up their markets,” Yeutter said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
As evidence of a possible improvement in U.S.-Japanese trade relations, he said that while in Tokyo he had obtained agreements from 60 Japanese firms to buy an additional $5 billion in U.S. goods. He added that another 70 Japanese companies are committed to making a “substantial increment” in their American purchases.
‘Positive News’
“Now, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t come on very strong in terms of trade practices carried out by Japan that are really causing us a lot of difficulty,” Yeutter cautioned. “But it is good to have some positive news coming out of that relationship for the first time in a long time.”
He admitted, however, that these steps will have little impact in the current year, when the U.S. trade deficit with Japan is expected to hit $50 billion. “There is just no way that that $50-billion figure is going to be adjusted much one way or another,” he said.
Yeutter declined to specify what steps the Administration might take to answer the growing cry in Congress for protectionist legislation to trim the U.S. trade deficit. But he said he expects President Reagan to act soon on a series of recommendations.
“Trade is most certainly not on the back burner at the White House today or within the Administration today,” he said. “We’re working on an overall assessment of that trade policy now, and you can expect the Administration to make statements on that subject probably within the next three or four weeks.”
He indicated that steps under Administration consideration include penalties against foreign governments that subsidize their goods on the world market. He noted that Reagan and previous Democratic and Republican Presidents have been reluctant to tackle this problem.
Speaking for the Democrats, former Trade Representative Robert Strauss accused the Administration of ignoring the trade problem and scoffed at Yeutter’s efforts to get Japanese firms to buy more U.S. goods. “A government forcing a few dozen firms to purchase a little more merchandise--that really isn’t getting at the problem,” he said.
He called on Reagan to tackle the problem personally by meeting with other heads of state to work out an international solution. “It’s an international crisis, not just an American crisis,” he said. “It calls for a global bargain to be struck.”
Strauss, who served as trade representative under President Carter, recalled that during his tenure he negotiated a timetable with the Japanese for the opening of their telecommunications market. But he added that the Japanese never lived up to that agreement because the Reagan Administration had “no aggressive, coherent policy to get after it.”
“The reason you’re having so much action on the Hill and so many bills being introduced is that this Administration hasn’t taken a lead,” he said. “They let a void exist. Trade has been very low on their agenda.”
Proposed Legislation
When Congress returns in September, Democrats have vowed to push for legislation to restrict imports. The measures include a bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas and Reps. Daniel Rostenkowski of Illinois and Richard Gephardt of Missouri, imposing a 25% tax on imports from countries with a gross trade imbalance with the United States. The Administration strongly opposes this bill as well as other similar proposals being considered.
Although the Democrats have vowed to make trade a major issue in the 1986 congressional elections, Strauss said that Republicans as well as Democrats in Congress are upset with the Reagan Administration’s trade policy. One popular bill, sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), would establish quotas on textile imports.
Yeutter declined to predict whether the President will accept or reject an International Trade Commission recommendation that must be acted upon by Aug. 31 to impose quotas on shoe imports to protect the domestic shoe industry.
