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
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■ 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