Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 11, 1992 TAG: 9201110131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VIRGINIA CEO CALLS JAPAN TRIP A VICTORY
President Bush is right, says a Virginia business executive who joined him on his trade mission to Japan: The trip was a success.Trouble is, the heads of America's Big Three automakers don't agree - and that is what's getting all the media attention, said Robert Maricich, president of American of Martinsville Inc., a diversified furniture manufacturer.
"I'm a little bit sick to my stomach," he said Friday, hours after returning to the United States with Bush "I just heard [Chrysler Chairman Lee] Iacocca's remarks. It's quite a disappointment."
Maricich and Iacocca were among 18 CEOs who accompanied the president on the 12-day trip to Asia and Australia.
"Without persistent outside pressure the Japanese will not move at all," an angry Iacocca said in Detroit. "And why the hell should they? They're winning. In fact, they're beating our brains in."
Iacocca's is a minority view, Maricich said, adding: "Fifteen of them would tell you it was a great success." Meetings with Japanese officials and business leaders focused on broad markets and sectors. The theme: "Not having balanced trade is not in anyone's best interest."
Still, American auto industry woes overshadowed the rest. The U.S. business leaders had been reading and hearing about the problems the whole trip, especially if they took the time each morning to read the inch-thick file of news clips faxed to the traveling White House press office.
"I got a great flavor for the negativism, for what the news columns were saying," Maricich said. His reaction? "Damn, why is everyone writing about the auto industry? Really unfortunate."
Consider it from Maricich's standpoint: The total trade deficit is $41 billion; autos and auto parts account for 75 percent of the total. Yet Japanese companies ship $60 billion more in manufactured parts here than the U.S. ships to Japan.
"So it's in manufacturing parts that we're out of whack . . . from satellites to furniture," he said. But the auto industry and its three honchos got all the attention.
All seemed to agree on one thing, he said: "We've got to change their system. And their system - there's no question - is a protected market. Now's the time to change."
Maricich's American of Martinsville, which makes furniture for dormitories, hotels and health care facilities, already has tried to do its part by becoming one of 20 U.S. companies in the Japan Corporate Program.
Co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the program uses American firms as models to show other companies how to do business in Japan.
Some appear to be learning; others haven't.
"I don't think there are any entitlements in the market," Maricich said. "You have to earn it and give consumers what they want."