Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 1, 1994 TAG: 9404020022
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The administration released a 281-page report citing 35 countries and four trading blocs for alleged unfair trading practices.
This report, known as the ``National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers'' will be the basis for targeting a much smaller list of nations by Sept. 30 for possible trade sanctions if they do not agree to remove the offending barriers.
While nations from Argentina to Australia were cited in the report, administration officials left no doubt that the primary focus was on Japan.
The section covering Japan took up 44 pages, an increase of 57 percent over last year. And the report's harshest comments were reserved for Japan, which it said had import barriers that far exceeded those of other major industrial countries and placed ``an unacceptable burden on the global trading system.''
This year's report took on added significance when President Clinton issued an executive order March 9 reviving a lapsed provision of trade law known as Super 301. This provision is deeply resented by foreign governments who see it as a form of unilateral bullying on the part of the United States, forcing them to make trade concessions in the face of threats of punitive U.S. tariffs.
The Clinton administration revived the law after broader market-opening talks between the United States and Japan broke down in February, when Japan refused to accept American demands that any market-opening offers include specific import goals to measure progress.
Japan this week unveiled a new market-opening proposal aimed at reducing its $59 billion surplus with the United States, but it was rejected as inadequate by U.S. officials, who said they would await better offers before agreeing to restart the stalled negotiations.
A spokesman for the Japanese embassy in Washington said he would have no comment on the trade-barriers report until it had been reviewed in Tokyo.
Ella Krucoff, a spokeswoman for the 12-nation European Union, said the EU would release by the end of April a listing of what it deems to be unfair trade barriers erected by the United States against European products.
``We have done this for a number of years as reminder that the United States also has barriers and it is not just a problem with the rest of the world,'' she said.
The European Union had 26 pages devoted to its alleged barriers in the U.S. report, second after Japan.
Over the next six months, the United States will engage in talks with nations interested in avoiding being targeted under Super 301. The last time Super 301 was in effect, in 1989 and 1990, several nations made trade concessions to keep from being put on the target list.
Under the Super 301 timetable, the administration will decide by Sept. 30 what barriers are the most harmful to American companies and target those countries for negotiations that can last from 12 to 18 months. Only if those talks fail would sanctions be imposed.
Alleged trade offenders
Arab League, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, European Union, Finland, Guatemala, Gulf Cooperation Council, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, ex-Soviet Union, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela.
by CNB