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Friday January 8, 12:44 am Eastern Time
Possible spat looms as Japan, U.S. differ on steel
By William Mallard
TOKYO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - In what could turn into a trade dispute revival, Japan and the United States publicly differed on Friday
over whether Tokyo would curb its steel exports.
The White House told Congress in a report on Thursday that Japan had agreed to cut this year's steel exports to the United States
to around 1997 ''pre-crisis'' levels.
But within hours on Friday a Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) official told Reuters: ''We have not given any 1999 estimates of steel
exports to the United States and have made no such promise.''
MITI Vice Minister Osamu Watanabe had predicted on Thursday that U.S. criticism of Japan over trade issues would increase, especially from the Congress, but
that Japan would make every effort to boost the economy through domestic demand, rather than exports.
''Friction is unavoidable, but the issue is how to deal with it,'' Watanabe said.
He said MITI Minister Kaoru Yosano, now on a European and U.S. trip that will include meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and
Commerce Secretary William Daley, will urge that neither side ''idly make trade a political matter.''
Watanabe also said, however, that Japan had no intention of undertaking ''managed trade.''
In Thursday's report to Congress, the White House offered no details on how any Japanese export cuts would be achieved, but the two sides' differences sounded
reminiscent of past trade squabbles.
In 1995, for example, Japan and the United States sealed a pact on auto trade, in which the United States announced its forecasts for increased Japanese purchases
of U.S. cars but Tokyo immediately disowned the figures.
However, another Japanese trade official, at MITI's steel division, said Japan's steel exports were expected to fall in 1999.
''Japan's steel exports to the United States are sure to continue falling this year in view of the present downtrend in the U.S. steel market and the strong yen,'' the
official said.
The U.S. government has voiced concerned over growth in imports of inexpensive steel from Japan, Russia, Brazil and South Korea.
To help U.S. steel companies, who say they are victims of dumping, the White House will propose about $300 million in tax relief to the industry over five years, a
U.S. official said.
A Japanese steel industry spokesman said final data was expected to show that Japan's overall steel exports to the United States in 1998 rose to about seven million
tonnes from 2.70 million tonnes in 1997, but added exports had started to decline on a month-on-month basis from October.
Nippon Steel and Kobe Steel declined comment, while spokesmen for other big Japanese steelmakers could not immediately be reached for comment.
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