Bush Decides Not to Place Japan on Trade ‘Hit List’

President Bush, ignoring congressional pressure, announced today that he has decided not to place Japan on a “hit list” of countries with the worst trade barriers against U.S. products.

India is the only country his Administration has decided to keep on its list of nations targeted for unfair trading practices, Bush said in a statement.

Bush hailed what he said was recent progress in easing U.S.-Japanese trade frictions.

“Promoting a vibrant, open trading relationship with Japan remains a key trade priority of the Administration,” Bush said.

A recent agreement with Japan that included Japanese concessions on opening its markets to more U.S. goods was a “promising start,” he said.

At the same time, he said, he was under no illusion that the agreement alone will “lead to an immediate improvement” in this nation’s $49-billion trade deficit with Japan.

But, he said, he was persuaded that Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and other Japanese leaders “share my commitment to ensuring that trade strengthens, rather than undermines, the friendship between our nations.”

A year ago, the Administration named Japan, Brazil and India as the countries with the most offensive barriers to American trade.

Both Japan and Brazil have won praise from the Administration for making significant concessions during negotiations aimed at opening their markets to American products.

But India, which was cited last year for a ban on operations of foreign private insurance companies and for controls on foreign investment that distort trade, has refused to make concessions.

U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills said that India was targeted again because it has the most trade barriers of any non-communist country and negotiations over the last year had made no progress.

Several members of Congress had warned the Administration that it would be making a serious mistake to fail to target Japan once more as a way of keeping pressure on the country to honor its market-opening commitments.