[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            TRADE WITH JAPAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it is time to pry open Japan's market, 
particularly in the sector of automotive goods.
  Now, what is wrong with this picture? Let me tell you what is wrong. 
Over the past 10 years, the United States has consistently run a 
massive trade deficit, getting worse year after year after year, last 
year the largest in the history of our country with Japan. And we have 
run that deficit largely in the area of automotive goods, regardless, 
regardless of what the economic conditions have been during those years 
between our two countries.
  That means regardless of what the yen-dollar relationship is, as this 
blue line charts out over the past 10 years, even as our dollar got 
cheaper, which means our goods should be cheaper on those shelves, the 
deficit got worse and worse and worse.
  In fact, over half of the trade deficit the United States has amassed 
with Japan, $66 million last year was in one sector, automotive and 
automotive goods. But that is not news. That has been going on year 
after year after year.
  Japan used to use the excuse, Well, in America you do not make any 
vehicles that are right-hand drive vehicles. Surprise, over the last 15 
years our automotive manufacturers now have 60 different models, so you 
cannot use even that excuse anymore.
  If you look back to 1985, when the exchange rate was 239 yen to the 
dollar, the United States in that year amassed a $23.7 billion trade 
deficit with Japan in automotive and automotive parts. Yet in 1994, 
when our dollar had literally been devalued by 300 percent, devalued by 
300 percent, which means that our goods should have been 300 percent 
cheaper and had some impact on sales in that market, we had an even 
worse deficit with Japan.
  In fact, last year we had a record trade deficit in the area of 
automotive and automotive goods, rising to over $37 billion, with each 
billion dollar of trade deficit equal to 20,000 jobs in this country. 
We are not talking about a small problem. Today, as we know, goods 
denominated in dollars are very, very cheap on the world market. It 
should help our exports except with Japan. In the first quarter of this 
year, we have amassed even worse deficits with them than we did last 
year, which was our worse year ever.
  What is wrong with this picture is Japan's market remains closed no 
matter what. As the price of our goods, both for automobiles as well as 
automotive parts, in Japan have become increasingly cheaper and less 
expensive and with the value of our dollar having been decreased by 
over 300 percent over the last 10 years, we should be running a huge 
trade surplus with Japan. Instead, we have recorded deficits year after 
year.
  In fact, the United States has been frozen at a 1.5-percent share of 
Japan's market for over a decade, while Japanese goods in the 
automotive sector now comprise 25 percent of our market. Let me repeat 
that, the United States goods are frozen to 1.5 percent of Japan's 
market through market control in that country, while Japan's goods now 
consume a 25-percent share of our market.
  For the sake of our Nation, in which one of six jobs is directly 
connected to the automotive industry and for the sake of nearly a 
million American workers who work in this country in the auto sector, I 
urge
 the Clinton administration to hang tough with Japan. The United States 
maintains a trade balance in automotive goods with every other 
industrialized nation in the world. I repeat, the United States is a 
competitive country in the automotive sector. We maintain a trade 
balance with every other industrialized country in the world but for 
one, but for Japan.

  So why should Japan not behave like the rest of the industrialized 
world? We wish the Clinton administration great success because if we 
can be successful for America, we will also be successful for the rest 
of the world in Japan, because, in fact, less than 4 percent of Japan's 
market is comprised of automotive goods from any country in the world, 
Europe, Asia, the United States. All are closed out.

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