
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 8, 1995                   TAG: 9506100010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON'S RECKLESS TRADE POLICY

IN THIS month's trade talks between Japan and the United States, some compromise may yet be found that will avert rising tensions or even all-out trade war.

The Clinton administration has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Japanese luxury cars, starting June 28, if Japan doesn't do more to open its auto markets to U.S. producers.

Japan may blink first, offering new concessions and a resumption of quasi-normal relations. Clinton himself may give ground. He's good at that.

It doesn't matter in either case. No outcome, however favorable, would justify the Clinton administration's reckless position in these talks. As with a game of chicken in which cars race toward a cliff, the decision to play the game is itself inexcusable.

No question, Japan - with both cultural and regulatory barriers - hinders penetration of its markets. Japanese themselves suffer as a result. Consumers have fewer choices and pay higher prices.

That warrants growing frustration. That warrants an appeal to the fledgling World Trade Organization, set up to referee such disputes. That gives no cause to further rig the market - as the United States is seeking to do by demanding Japan's guarantee that its automakers will buy a set amount of U.S.-made auto parts.

Nor does Japan's trade surplus warrant Clinton's threat of unilateral punishment if the Japanese refuse to accept a deal. The whopping tariffs he proposes, which would double the price of 13 Japanese models sold in America, are illegal under the revised General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that Clinton himself has commendably championed.

Indeed, the administration's bullying undercuts not just GATT and the new World Trade Organization, but the entire system of international commerce that drives prosperity everywhere - nowhere more so than in America. Other countries doubtless will be encouraged to flout trade rules, too.

Clinton apparently sees electioneering benefits in brinksmanship. If Japan capitulates, he can claim victory. If Japan stays firm, he can rail against closed markets all through his coming campaign. Besides which, the tariffs are targeted against expensive cars that most Americans can't afford.

But does the president care about the fate of dealership employees or, far more ominous, the likelihood of touching off a trade war that would affect millions of Americans? Tit-for-tat, once it gets going, is hard to stop.

Maybe this dispute will be resolved before cars careen over cliffs. Let's hope so. There's no excuse, in any event, for Clinton's political pandering at the expense of national interest.

by CNB