U.S. Trade With Germany, Japan
* Walter Russell Mead’s article (Opinion, April 16) regarding the dollar crisis is on-target. The deliberate refusal by Germany and Japan to open their markets to American goods has caused a situation in which these countries have all the dollars they want, and nothing to spend them on. Since it is the national policy of Japan and Germany to prevent their people from buying American products, if Americans buy lots of Japanese and German products this can only lead, eventually, to a plummet in the dollar’s value.
Japan and Germany produce many excellent products that Americans want to purchase. But we Americans make lots of good products, too. American computers, software, pharmaceuticals, aircraft and many other products lead the world, and successfully compete with Japanese and German products in markets where there is a level playing field. It is an outrage that our government has allowed the former Axis powers to take advantage of our commitment to free trade in this manner.
Mead is correct: This is not just another trade dispute. It is a critical opportunity for President Clinton to exert leadership. ROGER J. BUFFINGTON
Glendale
* Japan is on the right side of the trade dispute with the United States, and we are on the wrong side. Recent decades have seen millions of Americans lose their good-paying jobs due to foreign goods and runaway production. The American family is disintegrating and our inner cities are cancers of crime and filth. In contrast, Japan maintains full employment with high wages, maintains many of its old traditions of honor and respect, while maintaining safe and clean cities.
The Japanese still function as a society. To many Japanese it would be morally or ethically wrong to buy foreign products.
When I was young several decades ago, “Buy American” meant something. Owners of foreign cars were considered vaguely un-American. Buying “American” means very little because, even if when we try buying American today, the company is likely to be owned by foreigners.
When faced with the choice of building a society that works for everybody or getting a price break, America went one way and Japan went the other. Japan made the moral choice, while America made the choice that money is more important than people.
JOHN OWEN
Los Angeles
