U.S. Criticizes Japan’s Curb on Car Exports

President Reagan’s special trade representative, Clayton K. Yeutter, today denounced a decision by Japan to extend its voluntary restraints on auto exports, saying it is not the way to ease the $49.7-billion U.S.-Japanese trade deficit.

“The United States did not ask Japan (to take the action). This was their decision alone,” Yeutter said. “The only real answer is for Japan to open its markets further to U.S. products.”

Japan’s decision to limit car shipments to the United States for a sixth year was announced late Wednesday in Tokyo. (Story in Part IV, Page 1.)

Even though the decision appeared to guarantee no surge of imports that would widen the trade deficit further, it clearly was at odds with President Reagan’s stated goal of a “fair trade, free trade.”

Export Curbs No Answer

Yeutter said in a written statement: “While we understand the concerns that have prompted the government of Japan to take this action, export restraints are not the answer.”

But as the Administration sought publicly to put distance between itself and the Japanese decision, officials privately suggested the move could help ease protectionist pressures aimed at Japan on Capitol Hill, if only slightly.

Lawmakers active in trade issues joined with the U.S. auto industry in praising the decision.

“(It) means that they are getting the message from many of us in the United States that they can’t continue the invasion of Japanese products into this country and, in turn, block our American-produced goods out of their markets,” said Sen. Donald W. Riegle (D-Mich.).

Give-and-Take Matter

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), chairman of the Senate international trade subcommittee, said the decision signaled “a recognition on the part of the Japanese that trade is a give-and-take proposition.”

However, a Danforth aide, Steve Hilton, said Danforth still intends to pursue legislation that would impose trade sanctions on Japan if that nation does not begin to lower its barriers to U.S. goods.

The auto decision “takes a little heat off but not much, it takes off a little of the ragged edge,” Hilton said.

Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia called the Japanese action “a step in the right direction” toward easing the trade imbalance between the two countries, “despite the fact that the Reagan Administration did nothing to address this problem.”