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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 6, 1995)
EDITORIAL Trade agreement dubious victory Japan and the United States both say they won some thin# in the automobile trade fracas settled Inst week, just before a deadline that would have put a 100-per rout US. tariff on Japanese-manufactured luxury cars. Well, at least our president didn't throw up on their president. As many may recall, former President George Bush went to Tokyo in 1092 to try and create some trade flexibility in the Japanese auto industry'. Instead. Bush became ill at a fancy state dinner - and returned to the ! idled States without an agreement i ms new agreement i nines after some 20 years of the United States i),ii!Iiiig. with Japan over its rigid auto-trade harriers. The I inited Stales has complained over the years that Japanese auto makers and their sup pliers have frozen Arnurican parts maim Amcru ,t needs to continue to improve its prodtu is he n head gaskets or pume baskets it Japan will he a tiling to he partner \ in trade. • • **<»» ui>* !-i}>.11!«*'.«> market while limiting sales of I S nut do parts In Japanese assembly plants in Amor ,(i his translates into all kinds <>f numbers and statis tic s that favor the Japanese auto industry While HU per < ent of Amorit an c ar dealers sell foreign cars, only 7 pen ent .d Japan ••so ii»-,11»• s>. nun hip.moso oats Hut that argument brings up an entirely different roant. Oh® quick look .u am Consumer iu magazine will show that Japanese cars arts more reli able and are better across the board than their Amorh an counterparts U.S. auto makers have made some Incredible advances, but still have room for improvement. Umklng at political statistics, the recent TV ads fo.i turing a confident Clinton prove that the president is positioning himself for a reelect ion bid. and ho nwds any and all of the victories he can get Hut, was this agreement really a "victory" for the C.S. automobile market, as much as it was a political win for Clinton? Basically, Japan has agreed to increase its purchases of American car parts by nearly $*) billion over the next threo \ ears While Japanese auto manufacturers gave specify plans to deal more with Ament an cars and parts, inter national trade watchdogs don't give mu< h hope for the agreement because past agreements have not been fully honored by either country, The debate doesn't end with cars Other American manufacturers have their own complaints about Japanese trade practices Compromise might bo the only path to cooperation for these two monomii superpowers Amaru .» needs to continue to improve its products bo it head gaskets or pii ni< baskets if Japan or any other country will 1m* willing to be partners m trade. The good news is that Clinton didn't throw up on any Japanese dignitaries, and he averted an automotive trade war. Only time will tell which was most important Emerald mcigjH.au;. !N? (>^ D»*y f "'e'afcS ‘-5 publ^d -.1t? -‘> M ' ?»••. .*jn » y.- r*j ?•* v year and Ty^KJfty and Thursday du'iog th© summer t>y th® £>&--? Emerald K<* v'vna Co tnc . M *?>» Urvvorsrty of (VlQon. I ugen®. Dragon th# f ’-eraM Opiates n<MpandW% ot fha Un$v«**rty nvrth o«*:rs .n 500 of the f ?fc M*»- ■ • ■ -,ii (,*■■'■. * .*•-■«? •* .» •'■"■ c-"-i«*w ot !♦•« As.w .uted P?<*a.* Th® £ me* aid *s private proparty Th® untawM removal or um of papers « ptpsecuta&a C>y taw Editor in Chief (tewd Thorn Associate Editor* Mil «• Jr. • v,k M,v • ■ W- , M.> -,■■> s. ■ •-. Designer AaPury Photographer M«* , Night Editor (>,»*, t Thorn General Manager .,jT ilo.i Advertising Director U i^ W.i - Production Manager M hm® Rev* Advertising An-.® Am adof l nr? Yen B#h, Ju»t<n Gobar McAthe* ■? K<• =', lyon.Tttna SfMmaman Classified 0<x** M*-- M,» Production. Ta?a ^ jn vterR ^ d Business Kathy * =■ <a .v>v!w ^.a}, (> N*«rt/oom Bu*m*»* Office msn Otftp-iay AcJverli^ng AcJvtwtumg we-37ia 344 4343 TUE JAPAN/6SE BOUGHT 7HE AORE£r^GN7: 7WE.V DlDN T Buy 7HE ... uM PARfJ. % , PART* ji> n pac ts Ij >7 ■ LETTERS Americans lose The U S Sciialf failed to invoke cloture week on the m imin ition > if I >r l bnn i osier |f for surgeon general Kvun though the majority of Amen rans believe Foster deserved a vote on the Senate floor, polite i al pandering to the extreme right stopped that from happen’ mg Fairness did not prevail in fast week s vote and Americans lust access to common-sense health polii v as well as Dr Fos ter's leadership and experience to solve pressing social prob lems like teen pregnant i I Jr Foster s record of sen ice is set ond-to-none. and the Amen i an public has lost the benefit of his medical expertise American women lost the chance to have our first surgeon general who spo* ciehzrs m women s health, and our young people lost a dot tor who cures enough to give hun dreds of poor kids a meaningful shot at a future. I hose in the Senate who opposed lit Foster hid behind a tis mucality to prevent a straight up-or down vote. In the long run. this is a v it ton, fur no one Anna Lee! Director of Marketing Communications Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette Misquoted l! is difficult tu write tins let ter regarding Flux magazine, the School of Journalism and (im munisations' annual publica tion, In the article "Between I'wo Worlds Asian American Students Struggle to Define Themselves, I feel that the author, Putsata Rcang. captured the stones uf many students and their exponent es at tfie Univer sity M\ only concern focuses on the section in which I am quoted on page 37 as saving; "If I tome to school in a kimono, people wilt stare at me and make jokes The bottom line for these students is that they have to get assimilated. Thev have to decide how much of their cultures they will allow themselves, and how much rejection they t an handle," This is not my quote I would never advocate that students assimilate or face rejoc ■ lion Instead t believe that I and others have devoted time and energy to work toward creating an environment where diversity is appro* Sated Let me say in < losing that 1 hope my concerns regarding the mistd#ntifi< ation of this quote do not detract from the impor tance of the artic le Lisa A Suzuki, Ph D Assistant Professor Myths, lies l or more than 200 years, citi zens of this country have boon looking to their government to protect them from enemies, ensure social and economic jus lice, provide equal opportunity for all Americans, and protect their quality of life i ii t.iiiii! this i i•!!< government needs to set rules and regulations to monitor busi ness activity that could poten tiallv jeopardize pubth safety Very often, the regulated i om munitv (eels that the government is overly intrusive However, the government has a responsibility to balance the puhlii interest with the ts onomic interests of the business community The difficulty in balancing these interests lias led to a regu latory process and rules that am sometimes too inflexible or even irrational We strongly support measured and reasonable regu latory reform. The government has a responsibility to protect the public, but regulations can be made more flexible and responsive Unfortunately, powerful cor porate interests have seized on the need for regulatory reform as a means to eviscerate govern ment's ability to safeguard the puhlii Dripping with vitriol, conservative legislators present horror stories about -outra geous" government regulation. Yet most of these stories are lit tie more th.in tic him. Of council there are problems with thi; rule-111,iking process, but promoting false stories of government excess does little to improve the process or create a framework for sensible legisla tive solutions Citizens for Sensible Safe guards, a coalition of more than 230 consumer, labor, environ mental, religious and disability rights organizations, has com piled and debunked the most common horror stories exploit ed by powerful businesses and anti regulatory leaders We've all heard heart-wrench ing tales of children being denied a visit from the tooth fairy because of health regula tions and of neighborhoods unable to protect themselves from raging fires in order to pro tect rats that ma\ live in the area. Unfortunately, these exam ples are inaccurate, and in many cases, outright lies No regulation prohibits den tists from giving children hack their baby teeth The California fires ol 1904, to which the rat protection anecdote refers, destroyed thousands of acres o! property and many homes, hut the damage was intensified by high winds, not the protection of endangered rodents It is bad enough that policy makers promote incomplete or even misinformation, hut even worse is that they build momen tum for legislation that will have a devastating impact on people - like the woman whose son dies of hamburger poisoning, or the worker who loses an arm in the workplai e Americans want red tape and bureaucracy reduced, but they also want the environment pro tected, their workplaces safe, and the foods and medicines they purchase to be thoroughly test ed What they w ill get is a severe undermining of these safeguards as anti regulatory zealots set out to frame a very complex issues into bite-size stories. Gary D Bass, Ph D Chairman of Citizens tor Sensible Safeguards
