Japan Says It May Take Retaliatory Stance on U.S. Sanction Threats
Japan fired another shot in the escalating dispute with the United States over automotive trade Friday, warning that Tokyo might retaliate against U.S. sanctions with punitive measures of its own against American products.
The Clinton Administration said this week that it is preparing a list of possible sanctions against Japanese products. The threatened U.S. sanctions--including steep tariffs on Japanese luxury cars, according to Administration officials--could go into effect 30 days after the list is published and are aimed at pressuring Tokyo to lower trade barriers and import more cars and car parts.
Until now, the Japanese government has said it would respond to publication of the sanctions list by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization, the newly formed arbiter of international trade disputes, on the grounds that unilateral sanctions violate WTO rules.
Friday, officials of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said they are also considering imposing reciprocal punishment on U.S. products. But such a move would certainly involve far less painful measures than the tariffs the United States is weighing on luxury cars such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus, Nissan Motor Co.’s Infiniti and Honda Motor Co.’s Acura.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington had no comment on the statements from MITI officials. President Clinton is expected to discuss the trade dispute today in his weekly radio address.
The MITI officials stressed that Japan would take no step that would violate WTO rules.
That leaves only a few permissible measures against U.S. commercial interests. The most likely step, according to Japanese media reports Friday evening, would involve the raising of certain tariffs that Japan has voluntarily cut below internationally agreed-upon levels.
But such tariff increases could not be applied exclusively to U.S. goods, so Japanese officials would have to find a tariff they could raise on a product made only in the United States.
“First, we’d have to find such a product, and the tariff increase would have to be consistent with WTO rules. Plus, we’d have to persuade everyone in MITI, and also the foreign ministry, which is more timid,” one official said. “So it would be very hard.
“But if--and this is a big if--the U.S. sanction list were really provocative, then we could easily persuade politicians and other government officials to go along,” the official said.
A number of analysts and insiders, both in Tokyo and Washington, said they believe the dispute will probably be resolved in a few weeks by the Japanese auto industry voluntarily acceding to U.S. demands for the issuance of plans to buy more foreign-made car parts.
