Beware of Dead-End Streets : Find the economic winners and back them to the hilt

What’s wrong with this picture?

It shows President Bush, flying into Tokyo for a few days of selling Japan on the idea of opening its markets to more goods produced in the United States.

Nothing wrong there. Global trade missions are as old as global trade itself.

What about the 18 top executives of U.S. corporations marching down the steps of Air Force One behind Bush?

Well, to start, this high-priced talent should be back in company headquarters, peering over the shoulders of its top engineers, earning its keep by insisting on style and fabrication that is better than anything Japan can build.

Each year, Japan sells products in the United States worth about $40 billion more than the products Americans sell to Japan. Three-fourths of that $40 billion represents auto-related trade, so for U.S. auto manufacturers the battle is tougher than ever. The erosion of U.S. dominance moved one Washington analyst to warn that Detroit will go out of business unless there are urgent steps to revive it.

Washington can tinker with the American automobile industry if it insists, but its time and energy might be better invested in learning to build other things better. And the problem clearly is one of building and selling, not of inventing. Witness the fact that many of the consumer goods Japan builds so well are based on American technology.

It may well be time to follow the pattern Japan has followed in steel, shipbuilding and other ventures. When another country could do the jobs cheaper, Japan abandoned steel and ships and moved to a higher technology.

Bush is right to argue for opening Japan to more American goods. But he should also be pressing American industry to concentrate on creating new consumer goods to offset Japan’s advantage in automobiles.