U.S.-Japan Trade Problems
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Perhaps the indication of the ineptness and pure wimpiness of the Reagan Administration is the recent “trade retaliation” against the Japanese. $300 million against the $56-billion unfair trade rewards is not a slap on the wrist, it is a drop of water and the Japanese continue to laugh on their way to the bank. Their so-called reaction is a joke. To add real foolishness to the issue, U.S. trade representative Clayton Yeutter proclaimed quickly that even these measures were not really meant to stay in force.
Such psychology will never work on the Japanese who continue their trade war while we hit them with a pillow. In addition, the dollar is being hit all over the world so we become weaker and more subject to inflation. Of course anything done invariably costs the consumer or the taxpayer more. If such incompetence on the part of our government were practiced in Japan, they would all have to commit suicide.
The only solution is a total restructuring of our trade relationships including getting the Japanese to pay for their own defense. This can only come by real Draconian measures for that is the only way they will come to fair trade.
GEOFFREY POST
Irvine
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