Objectives Mixed Up

I am curious about all this hand-wringing over protectionism and the one-way thrust of “free trade.” The European Common Market has imposed severe curbs on Japanese vehicles for years, and the world has not come to an end.

What is this paranoidal panic over the threat of a trade war we are sure to win?

The objective is not primarily one of opening up Japanese markets to us, because there is really not that much that the Japanese consumer wishes to buy from this country. The objective is to limit what they sell to us. And where else can they export their stuff? To South America? To the Soviet Union? We are virtually the only plum.

Economic heresy? Perhaps. But with a $140-billion foreign debt confronting us, the time is long past to reduce the heady brew of Pacific Rim imports that threaten to destroy the industrial base of this nation.

ROBERT CURLENDER

Pasadena