[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[June 19, 1997]
[Pages 767-768]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Ryutaro 
Hashimoto of Japan in Denver, Colorado
June 19, 1997

Southern Baptist Boycott of Disney

    Q. Mr. President, are you going to abide by the Southern Baptist 
vote on boycotting Disney?
    President Clinton. No.

Deregulation and Trade

    Q. Mr. President, the United States has been urging Japan for a 
number of years now to try to jump-start its domestic economy. Do you 
have any confidence that they're likely to be able to do so in a way 
that would actually improve their domestic economy----
    President Clinton. Well, if the Prime Minister's deregulation 
initiative works, I think it could spark a lot of domestic economic 
activity and also increase demand in a way that would improve life for 
Japanese consumers and also help----
    Q. Are you going to express displeasure about the trade imbalance 
figures that came out today?
    President Clinton. Well, I wish they weren't so high. But we're 
going to discuss that. But keep in mind we also have made an agreement 
today to involve the United States in the process with Japan to evaluate 
its deregulation initiatives in several areas in terms of how it might 
affect our bilateral relations. So we're moving in the right direction, 
and I'm hopeful we can make some progress.
    Q. Do you view it as----
    Prime Minister Hashimoto. If I may say one word here. About our 
question, if you look at the situation in the foreign exchange market, 
the market has been calm, very calm. This is the answer from my side.
    Q.  Prime Minister Hashimoto, U.S. officials told us that you had 
reached an agreement with the United States under which the United 
States would have an advisory role on deregulating certain of Japan's 
industries. Do you view it as, in any sense, a violation of Japan's 
economic sovereignty to give the United States such a role? And why did 
you not insist on parity, that is to say the Japanese have got a role in 
U.S. deregulation?
    Prime Minister Hashimoto.  It's not an advisory role. We have no 
intention of being supervised. Deregulation is a task that we have to 
embark upon for ourselves. We're friends, so we already discuss matters 
with the United States in that kind of process. We made a promise back 
in Washington, and yesterday we were able to reach an understanding to 
establish a framework for such a problem. So please have more confidence 
in the two of us.
    Q.  Thank you.

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

China's Status in Future Economic Summits

    Q.  Mr. President, do you think that China should be a member of the 
summit in the future? If so, what conditions would be there?
    President Clinton.  Well, the short answer to that question is that 
these summits have always been summits of market-oriented democracies. 
And so it would require a whole redefinition of what this process is for 
a country that doesn't have democratically elected leaders to be part of 
it. What I do believe is that the United States and Japan should be 
working together to help to integrate China into the world's economic 
institutions and to build stable partnerships for peace and prosperity.
    Q.  Are you going to discuss with the other leaders or Prime 
Minister Hashimoto this position about China's joining?
    President Clinton.  The way we have this organized we will be able 
to discuss whatever we'd like, because we have at least one occasion, 
and to some extent, two, where we'll be able to sit around and bring up 
all of our concerns. So the Prime Minister has a lot of interesting 
things that he wants raised here.

Russia-Japan Territory Dispute

    Q. What do you think about the territorial issue between Russia and 
Japan, and are you going to discuss about this issue with President 
Yeltsin?
    President Clinton. Yes, and I have discussed it on several occasions 
in the past, always urging Russia to try to resolve this matter with 
Japan. I believe it's very much in the interest of both Russia and Japan 
to resolve this matter and to build a strong partnership.

[[Page 768]]

    The United States would feel much better about the future of the 
world knowing that Japan and Russia have the kind of partnership in the 
East that we have just tried to establish between Russia and Europe and 
the United States from NATO in the West. And obviously, there will have 
to be some plan for resolving this, but it will have to be worked out by 
the Prime Minister and President Yeltsin. But I have raised it before on 
several occasions.
    Q. Would you nominate--[inaudible]--to the Ambassador to Japan soon, 
or discuss with the Prime Minister?
    President Clinton. Yes, I hope to do that.
    Q. Next week?
    President Clinton. I don't know.
    Prime Minister Hashimoto. I'm grateful to all the questioning, 
because you have finished most of the topics that I was going to raise 
with the President. [Laughter] But in order to preserve his honor, of 
course, I have to add something. The President has been raising the 
issue with President Yeltsin, with the Russians on many occasions about 
the existence of the territorial issue and the urgent need for solving 
this issue between Japan and Russia. And of course, I sincerely hope 
that I can get support not only from the President of the United States 
but also from the other leaders participating in the summit. And I'd 
like to ask for cooperation from President Clinton on that account, too.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The exchange began at 3:45 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency/Tech Center. 
In his remarks, the President referred to President Boris Yeltsin of 
Russia. Prime Minister Hashimoto spoke in Japanese, and his remarks were 
translated by an interpreter. A tape was not available for verification 
of the content of this exchange.