Cranston Blames Reagan, Japan for Trade Deficit

Winding up a campaign-style swing through California last week, Democratic U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston blamed both President Reagan and the Japanese government for America’s $150-billion trade imbalance, and said he will support legislation to protect U.S. business.

Cranston said U.S. businesses, especially California’s high technology and agricultural industries, are “being crippled by trade restrictions all over the world and our most important trading partner, Japan, has the most restrictions.”

He said computer manufacturers and farmers particularly feel threatened by the “economic imperialism of Japan.”

But the senator said the Reagan Administration “had failed to develop a trade policy while watching our trade deficit climb toward $150 billion. Something must be done.”

Won’t Take Sides

Cranston’s comments came at a Capitol news conference in which he also said he is not going to take sides in next year’s battle over the confirmation election of state Supreme Court Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

Winding up a monthlong, 5,140-mile trip that crisscrossed California, Cranston said he will support protectionist legislation as long as it contains provisions to drop trade barriers once foreign competitors have dropped theirs.

The senator, up for reelection in 1986 and facing potential Republican opponents who will be actively opposing Bird, said, “She is running a nonpartisan race. She is not seeking partisan endorsements.”

Cranston said Bird had not sought his endorsement, and “I have not offered mine.”

The Democratic legislator said he does not consider it wise or appropriate to mix nonpartisan judicial politics with his own partisan reelection campaign.

Visits 44 Cities

Cranston’s tour of California included a series of community forums around the state. He visited 44 cities during the month of August.

He said the feedback he got on the subject of crime “was the most revealing.”

“You hear a lot of personal stories,” Cranston continued, “and I found there is a widespread feeling that neighborhood involvement is the best way to reduce the level of crime. One little town had eliminated crime entirely through its Neighborhood Watch program. The same program in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles works very well but I learned that if an adjacent community does not have an active watch program, then the criminals just move over there. Clearly you have to have Neighborhood Watch in every neighborhood.”

In a recent press conference, Cranston said that “in every forum there was agreement on the major reasons for crime: drugs and alcohol; unemployment and poverty, and judges who are soft on criminals.”

Cranston said he agreed generally about the judges.

“I think we need sterner sentences and swifter justice,” he said. “I think the main thing is that we are too slow in meting out sentences.”

Opposes Death Penalty

However, Cranston said he does not support the death penalty.

“I don’t think it (the death penalty) works,” Cranston said. “I oppose it for many reasons, moral and ethical.”

On the issue of the trade imbalance, Cranston said: “Unless congressional warnings of impending countermeasures and Reagan Administration negotiations cause Japan and other protectionist nations to drop their barriers to American products, I believe Congress will adopt strong trade legislation this fall.

“The best idea would be to say that if a country’s export balance exceeds its import balance by 55%, then we would impose a 25% tariff on everything it sends into this country.”

Japan would be subject to that remedy, meaning that, if legislation passes and the Japanese do not buy more American products, the United States would add the tariff to the cars and electronic consumer goods that are so popular in this country.

“The rules have changed on trade,” Cranston said.