Consumers in Japan Defended by Mosbacher

Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher predicted today that the Bush Administration will treat U.S.-Japanese economic issues on an equal plane with America’s security alliance with Japan.

“I don’t think you’ll find the kind of schism we used to see” when security concerns outweighed trade disputes in importance, Mosbacher told a breakfast meeting with foreign correspondents.

The former businessman said President Bush “cares a great deal--tremendously--about the alliance and friendship with Japan,” then added, “But he doesn’t see that that precludes hard negotiations in the trade area.”

Mosbacher said he did not think that negotiations that began last week to remove impediments to trade would jeopardize America’s defense alliance with Japan. U.S. bases here, at which some 60,000 troops are stationed, play a key role in American defense strategy throughout Asia.

“There’s a little danger” that trade demands would jeopardize the alliance, Mosbacher said, “but I think the earlier you lay these (trade issues) out and talk about them, the better the chance of not having something fester and build up (to the point) where you really get a rupture of friendship and alliance.”

Mosbacher made the comments after delivering a biting speech at the Japan National Press Club on Wednesday. In it, he declared that the “Japanese consumer does not get a fair break in his own marketplace” and condemned Japan as one of the “most closed” markets in the world.

“If Japanese consumers had the freedom to make the same choices that consumers in other countries make, we would all be the richer for it,” Mosbacher said.

He also warned that failure to achieve success in negotiations to remove structural impediments to trade in both the United States and Japan would threaten “the future of the world trading system.” Japan, like the United States, he said, needs “to temper its culture” to bring it “into line with the times.”

His remarks stirred sarcastic questions from Japanese reporters.

One of them, tongue-in-cheek, “thanked” Mosbacher for “your concern for the Japanese consumer.” The reporter then suggested that America’s red ink in its trade in Japan would not dwindle significantly even if Japan carried out all the reforms Mosbacher suggested, and the reporter asked whether the United States is prepared to tolerate any deficit, no matter how high, “as long as Japanese consumers benefit.”

Mosbacher said yes--”if Japan has an open market.” But he insisted that “the plight of the consumer is a direct result of the lack of an open market in Japan.”

The commerce secretary was also attacked for his successful fight to overturn a decision by the Reagan Administration and renegotiate a U.S.-Japan agreement for the two countries to jointly develop a new Japanese fighter plane, dubbed the FSX. The plane is modeled on the F-16 produced by General Dynamics.

A Japanese reporter said Defense Agency officials “are declaring publicly” that they will never again work with the United States on joint weaponry development and asked what guarantee Mosbacher could offer that Washington would uphold future agreements.

Mosbacher offered no guarantee. Instead, he defended the reworked agreement as “reasonable.”

Another Japanese asked why the United States is urging Japan to carry out sweeping reforms of its economic culture by next spring while the United States is undertaking reforms that Washington acknowledges could take years to produce results.

Instead of answering the question, Mosbacher said only: “Free trade, open market. That’s what everything is about.”

Mosbacher, who declared earlier that Japan has made no moves to open its markets, has been reminded by Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu that Japan had increased its imports from the United States by $10 billion last year.