Dec. 31 Deadline Set for Japan to Open Markets

In a further effort to display a tough trade policy, the Reagan Administration is imposing an end-of-the-year deadline for Japan to open its markets to certain U.S. goods or face retaliation, Special Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter said Wednesday.

Yeutter, asked during an appearance before the American Business Council whether Administration trade talks with Japan would produce U.S. “winners,” replied: “Either there will be winners or there’ll be retaliation--one or the other.”

Concrete Results Sought

Since early this year, U.S. negotiators have been concentrating with little success on expanding U.S. exports in four Japanese markets--telecommunications, electronics, forest products and pharmaceutical and medical supplies. Now, Yeutter said, the Administration has decided to press for concrete results by Dec. 31 or begin the formal process of imposing penalties on Japanese imports.

Yeutter also said that Reagan would initiate investigations of unfair trading practices beyond those announced early last month. At that time, Reagan said he had begun investigations of possibly unfair exclusion of U.S. products from foreign countries: tobacco products in Japan, computers in Brazil and life and fire insurance in South Korea.

The action was based on executive authority granted the President in the 1974 Trade Act but never used in previous Administrations.

In a parallel action Wednesday, the White House said that Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige will head an Administration “trade strike force” to identify unfair trade practices abroad and develop strategies to counter them. Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said the group would report recommendations to the Cabinet-level Economic Policy Council.

In his appearance before the American Business Council, a group of mid-sized, high-growth companies, Yeutter reserved most of his fire for Japan.

‘Pressure on Japanese’

“We intend to increase the intensity of the pressure on the Japanese as time goes on,” he said. “Japanese import controls are unacceptable. We want to open up our product flow into Japan.

Yeutter also restated the Administration’s opposition to most of the protectionist legislation sweeping Congress. He reasserted Reagan’s intention to veto any legislation aimed at excluding foreign goods rather than expanding U.S. exports.

But he said the Administration might accept a proposed bill calling for retaliation against nations that refuse to open their markets to American-made telecommunications products--as long as the retaliation is left to the discretion of the executive branch.

A House subcommittee later Wednesday approved a version of the telecommunications bill that would fail Yeutter’s test.

The bill would authorize the President to impose penalties--tariffs, quotas or other restrictions--on telecommunications goods from any country that refused, after 18 months of negotiations, to open its markets to U.S. goods. If the President did not act, the Federal Communications Commission would be required to use its licensing powers to keep the foreign goods out of American markets.

The bill, which already has cleared the Senate Finance Committee, was approved on a voice vote by the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce and transportation. No country is named in the bill, but the prime target is Japan, both a major market for and supplier of telecommunications equipment.

Another protectionist bill advanced in the Senate, which voted 53 to 42 against killing a measure to curb textile and shoe imports. The legislation, which has cleared the House Ways and Means Committee and is likely to come to a final vote in the Senate later this month, was offered as an amendment to a bill designed to ratify a new diplomatic arrangement with American protectorates in Micronesia.