YEUTTER BLAMES OVERPRODUCTION FOR TRADE PROBLEMS
Over-investment and over-production are
at the root of many of the difficult trade issues that have
soured relations between the United States and some of its
major trading partners, trade representative Clayton Yeutter
said.
    He told a conference, held by the University of Chicago's
Graduate Business School, that much of this was caused by
governments "getting their finger in the pot."
    Yeutter referred specifically to the problems of
agricultural trade, where subsidized exports have been a point
of contention most notably between the United States and the
European Community.
    "Think of the vast waste of financial and other resources,"
he said.
    Yeutter said much of the problem underlying the dispute
with Japan over semiconductors was due to overproduction.
    The trade representative called for a long-term approach to
international trade and said the recent commitment to a
free-trade agreement between the United States and Canada was a
step in the right direction.
    There's a lot of work to be done in the next six months,
but we have set October 1 as a target date for an agreement to
be reached, he added.
    "We're trying to create an environment that will facilitate
and foster free and open trade in the world," he said.
 Reuter
