President Tells UAW of Tough Japan-Trade Stance : Labor: Clinton, speaking by satellite to the union’s convention in Anaheim, says sanctions aren’t a bluff.

President Clinton talked tough in the trade battle with Japan on Monday, promising a convention hall full of auto workers that his threat of punitive sanctions on Japanese luxury cars is not a bluff.

“Make no mistake, if we have not resolved this by June 28, these sanctions will go into effect,” Clinton said in a two-way satellite linkup from Washington to the United Auto Workers union’s triennial convention in Anaheim.

The Clinton Administration has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on 13 imported Japanese luxury models unless Japan makes its market more open to U.S. cars and car parts. Administration officials blame Japanese automotive trade barriers for nearly two-thirds of the $66 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan. The sanctions threat prompted Japan to file a complaint with the new World Trade Organization.

U.S. and Japanese officials ended a day of talks under the auspices of the World Trade Organization in Geneva on Monday with no sign of progress.

Clinton reminded the auto workers that every president for decades has tried and failed to push Japan on the issue.

“In the last 25 years, we shipped 400,000 cars to Japan and they shipped 40 million cars to us. That’s a 100-to-1 ratio,” Clinton said. “Be sure and quote that number the next time somebody tells you there’s not really a trade problem here.”

Clinton’s 30-minute speech touched on most of the themes Democrats strike in building their alliances with labor unions. He said collective bargaining is a right, not a privilege, and he voiced support for UAW members who have been on strike for a year at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Ill. He pledged to veto congressional attempts to weaken federal laws protecting organized labor and he pledged to pursue his proposal to raise the minimum wage from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 by July 3, 1996.

“There is really no evidence that a raise in minimum wage will cost jobs,” Clinton said. “But we do know it will make more people want to move from welfare to work. . . . We know if we don’t raise the minimum wage, next year it will be at a 40-year low, once you adjust for inflation.”

Clinton also praised outgoing UAW President Owen Bieber, and joked that he wished the polls made his election as certain as that of Stephen P. Yokich, the UAW vice president expected to succeed Bieber after Wednesday convention vote.

Bieber amplified the message of convention delegates, who cheered and chanted “four more years.”

“You can rest assured you have a UAW army waiting, ready and we’re going to start right now to see to it that Bill Clinton is reelected,” Bieber said.