Baker Says U.S. Open to Japan Free Trade Pact

The United States would be happy to consider negotiating a free-trade agreement with Japan along the lines of the treaty reached with Canada, Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III said today.

While there are no current discussions about such a treaty, it would fit into this country’s overall strategy to break down trade barriers wherever they exist, he said.

“We have a major trading relationship with Japan,” Baker said. “It (a free-trade agreement) would be something that the United States would be pleased to consider if it were something that the government of Japan wanted to consider.”

Preview for Summit

Baker’s comments came in a television interview with foreign journalists for broadcast outside the United States by the U.S. Information Agency. The session was a preview of the seven-nation economic summit opening Sunday in Toronto.

President Reagan, addressing the annual conference of the USIA International Council, meantime, reiterated his belief in free trade while saying trade barriers of other countries are generating protectionist pressures in America.

“It damages the entire world economy when foreign countries fail to offer the same opportunity to American exports that America offers to their products,” Reagan said. “It is this basic sense of fairness that has helped generate protectionist pressures in America. Let me repeat, protectionism, the closing of America’s markets, is the wrong response; opening markets, that, I firmly believe, is the answer.”

Japanese Market Sought

A U.S.-Japan free-trade agreement would presumably be of substantial benefit to this country in getting the Japanese to open their markets to American products.

The Japanese ran up a trade surplus with the United States last year of $59.8 billion.