Japan Says It May Take Retaliatory Stance on U.S. Sanction Threats
Japan turned up the heat Friday in its escalating auto trade dispute with the United States, saying it might take retaliatory steps of its own, including trade sanctions.
An official at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Japan’s response to threatened U.S. sanctions might go beyond complaining to the World Trade Organization and could involve some reciprocal action.
“Our reaction to the U.S. list may not be limited to our complaints with the WTO. We are now studying what else we can do,” the official said.
Officials at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington declined to comment.
Japan has already pledged to appeal to the new world trade body as soon as Washington unveils its list of targets for punitive tariffs included in its bid to force a deal in the dispute over car and car parts trade.
The Japanese trade official said Japan was trying to come up with steps that did not violate WTO rules but were threatening to Washington.
“We are looking for steps which the U.S. would clearly recognize as sanctions,” he said without elaborating.
The United States said Wednesday that it was ready to hit Japanese imports with punitive duties and challenge Tokyo’s auto market regulations and practices at the Geneva-based WTO to force open Japan’s markets to U.S. cars and parts.
President Clinton is reportedly set to discuss the auto trade dispute today in his weekly radio address. The target list for U.S. sanctions is to be published in the next few days. Another 30-day period is required by law to allow the public to comment and to narrow the field of targets.
Japan has roundly rejected a key U.S. demand in the 20-month-old talks for Japanese car makers to draft fresh “voluntary” plans to buy more American-made car parts, and the battle could well end up being fought before the WTO.
U.S. officials have made it clear they are eyeing the June 15-17 summit of the wealthy industrial nations in Halifax, Canada, as an important opportunity to settle the long-running dispute.
“Halifax would provide an opportunity for the prime minister of Japan and the President of the United States to discuss these matters, and I hope it might be the occasion for resolving them,” Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Thursday in Kiev, Ukraine, where Clinton was on a state visit.
“There will be an opportunity at Halifax before the sanctions go into effect to have a discussion at the highest level,” Christopher told reporters.
Both sides took pains this week to say that the trade dispute will not sour overall U.S.-Japan ties, but analysts were far from certain it could be settled any time soon.
“It’s a political issue, but a resolution would be very difficult at this point unless the United States gives up its demand for voluntary purchase plans,” said Takeshi Kondo, chairman of the Itochu Political and Economic Research Institute.
