Democrats Form Task Force to Promote Trade in Pacific Rim

Three Democratic leaders, declaring that government must help private business become more competitive in foreign markets, announced the formation Monday of a new task force to make proposals for strengthening California’s trade with Pacific Rim nations.

Sen. Alan Cranston, U.S. Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles) and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy said the group, to be known as “California-Pacific Year 2000 Task Force,” will be asked to make recommendations on a wide range of issues that influence America’s trade relations with Asian nations.

The group, which will be made up of members appointed by the three Democratic leaders, presumably could wind up competing with or duplicating the foreign trade and investment efforts of Republican Gov. George Deukmejian. A spokesman said the governor hoped that the Democratic effort would “complement” his own.

Cranston said the 20-member group will conduct hearings throughout the state before it issues a white paper proposing “private sector initiatives” and a broad state and federal legislative program. He said it will make proposals on everything from trade to education in an effort to improve California’s competitiveness with Asian nations in the 21st Century.

‘Japan-Bashing’

By creating the task force, Cranston said, the three leaders were hoping to discourage those who blame other nations for America’s trade woes through “Japan-bashing or Taiwan-bashing or Korea-bashing.”

“The fact is that more of our problems in world trade stem from our failures than from their successes,” Cranston said. “We don’t give the help to our would-be foreign traders that those countries give to theirs. We don’t give the training in our universities.”

The announcement by the Democratic leaders came a day before Deukmejian was scheduled to announce the opening of a second state trade office in Asia. California already has trade offices in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Another is planned for Frankfurt.

Asked if creation of the task force is an indication of Democratic dissatisfaction with the governor’s trade efforts, McCarthy would say only, “I’m not so much interested in the omissions of the past as I am of this kind of first-time, federal-state comprehensive approach.”

A spokesman for the governor said that as far as he knew the plans for the task force had not been discussed with Deukmejian.

Saying the governor’s “level of activism in Pacific Rim trade is unprecedented,” Assistant Press Secretary Tom Beerman added: “We would hope this (task force) effort would not conflict with anything that the state has undertaken in this area and instead hope that it would complement California’s efforts in improving international trade.”

During his second term, Deukmejian has made five trips to promote trade with foreign nations and lobbied successfully for the establishment of the first export licensing office in California.

Levine said the task force will be made up of university, business and government leaders with expertise in Pacific trade, particularly Asian-Americans who still have strong business and cultural ties to Pacific nations.

He said he hoped that the creation of the task force will eventually encourage government to play a bigger role in improving America’s competitiveness with other nations.

“(There) is the need for the government in our country to be of more assistance to the private sector than we have been,” he said. “Today our private sector is simply unable to compete with the private sectors in a number of Asian countries.”

Cranston, who is chairman of the Senate foreign relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific affairs, said he has already made several legislative proposals of his own designed to make it easier for Californians to conduct business in Asian countries. He said these include proposals to reduce capital gains taxes, establish annual summit meetings with leaders of Pacific Rim nations, add a second export licensing office in Northern California and funnel more education funds into math, science and Asian language training.

Acknowledging he is one of the few Democrats who supports a cut in capital gains taxes, Cranston predicted that his plan would increase rather than reduce federal tax revenue by encouraging more business investment.

“In the course of time, I’m convinced we will get a capital gains cut,” he said.