REAGAN HOPES TO LIFT JAPAN SANCTIONS SOON
President Reagan said he hoped the
United States could lift trade sanctions against Japan soon.
    But he said the United States would do what is necessary to
see that other nations lived up to their trade agreements.
    In a speech prepared for delivery to the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, he said, "I hope that, before long, we can lift these
(Japanese trade sanctions) and that this episode will be
recorded as a small incident in the building of our
relationship."
    But, Reagan added, "we will do what is necessary to see that
other nations live up to their obligations and trading
agreements with us. Trade must be free. It must also be fair."
    Reagan said the decision to impose 100 pct tariffs on 300
mln dlrs worth of electronic exports to the United States sent
a message it was time to complete a U.S.-Japan "trade bridge."
  "The final answer to the trade problems between America and
Japan is not more hemming and hawing, not more trade sanctions,
not more voluntary restraint agreements - though these may be
needed as steps along the way - and certainly not more
unfulfilled agreements," he said.
    Reagan said the answer was genuinely fair and open markets
on both sides of the Pacific - "and the sooner, the better."
    Reagan said the administration's tools for dealing with
unfair trade practices met the need for both firmness and
finesse.
    He said trade legislation pending in Congress would be
dangerous because it would force the administration to use "a
steamroller against unfair practices every time, no matter
whether the steamroller would open the trade doors or flatten
the entire house," he said.
    Reagan said that ending every unfair trade practice in
Japan would cut the U.S. trade deficit by only about 10 pct.
    "If our trade deficit is to come down, more must be done --
and is being done," he said.
    "The change in the dollar's value is part of it, and since
the middle of last year, the actual volume of our exports had
been on the rise," he said.
    He also said he believed America's trading partners should
cut taxes and regulations, as the United States had done, so
that they could create jobs and buy more goods.
 Reuter
