Reagan Chides His Japanese Hosts : Trade: Some friction with the U.S. stems from misunderstandings, but Americans have a strong aversion to unfairness, he asserts.
After nine days of friendly toasts and gala banquets, former President Ronald Reagan issued a mild rebuke to his Japanese hosts today on unfair trade practices.
“I’ve come to Japan as a friend, as someone who wants to see us get through the friction of our relationship so that it does not rub the relationship raw,” Reagan said in a speech prepared for delivery today to business leaders in Osaka.
He said a “communications gap” looms larger than the trade gap between the two countries and conceded that trade barriers account for only 15% to 20% of the U.S. trade deficit. But he also warned that “fairness is a very strong strain in the American people,” and referred to the 1773 Boston Tea Party as an example of Yankee rancor against foreign powers.
We don’t want a Japanese Tea Party,” he said.
Reagan, whose visit is sponsored by a communications conglomerate that is paying him a $2-million honorarium, said, “The fact of the matter is that until Japan’s trade barriers--whether they’re regulatory, cultural, structural, whatever--until they’re lowered, the focus in the U.S. is not going to be on whether American companies have the quality products Japanese consumers want to buy, but that the Japanese system won’t let Japanese consumers buy them.”
He went on to warn Japan of international denunciation of its environmental policies, “an emotional issue that has the potential to harm Japan greatly.” He noted the increasing news coverage in the United States of Japan’s drift-net fishing and its tropical logging.
“No country is without blame when it comes to the environment,” he said. “But Japan will come under increasing pressure, perhaps even the boycott of Japanese products.”
His remarks were relatively harsh compared to his comments Wednesday, when he denounced the backlash against Japanese investment in the United States and said he saw “nothing wrong” with Sony Corp.’s recent $3.4-billion purchase of Columbia Pictures. He added, in a TV interview, that the investment might restore decency and good taste to Hollywood movies, which he said too often display immorality and vulgarity.
Yet Reagan showed his usual optimism today, advocating a U.S.-Japan free-trade zone that would unite the “two greatest economic powers in the world.”
“Let us leap beyond no-win squabbling by undertaking a breathtaking plan,” he said.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo Mike Mansfield first proposed such a trade zone, similar to the free-trade pact between the United States and Canada, but the idea has been given little serious attention on either side of the Pacific.
While decrying American perceptions that Japan poses a greater threat to U.S. security than the Soviet military, Reagan also criticized some Japanese attitudes about a weakening America.
“I’m told there are those in Japan who believe the United States is a declining superpower propped up with Japanese money and technology, that the United States is lazy, soft, and simply living off its past glory,” he said. “Well, I say to those voices of demise . . . you don’t understand America. You don’t understand our strength and potential.”
On Friday, Nancy Reagan delivered a pointed warning about the potential for drug abuse in Japan.
“Please, do not be complacent in thinking that the drug tragedy cannot come to these islands,” she said after lunch at a Tokyo hotel. “We in America were once complacent, too. A terrible disaster has befallen the United States. . . . Please do not let it happen here.”
