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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Worswick who wrote (6486)	9/18/1998 9:38:00 AM
From: Worswick	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

For all you Asia boosters... For Private Use Only (C) NYHT ".... U.S. Faces an Asian Wall Officials Try to Keep Region's Markets Open -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Don Kirk International Herald Tribune -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEOUL - As the United States reported Thursday that its trade deficit had widened sharply again, its trade officials encountered a wall of resistance to American efforts to pry open key Asian markets, officials reported. Their failure added to the sense of frustration among U.S. officials visiting the region this week. Their main fear is that access to the region's markets will close as leaders across Asia attempt to strengthen their own economies and industries through increased exports, largely to the United States. In Japan, the U.S. trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, has been trying to convince the Japanese of the need to open their markets as an antidote to a possible record surplus in Japanese trade with the United States. But Ms. Barshefsky elicited noncommittal responses from the ministers of international trade and industry, agriculture and telecommunications to demands for freer markets and deregulation. ''She didn't get any progress but understood what we thought,'' said Shin Hosaka, deputy director of the North American desk at Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. In a meeting Thursday with the minister of international trade and industry, Kaoru Yosano, Ms. Barshefsky called for increased imports of motor vehicles, automotive parts and flat glass, according to Japanese reports. The increase was needed, she said, to counter rising exports of Japanese cars and steel. Yoshio Nakamura, managing director for the economic bureau of Keidanren, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, said Japanese exports had soared because of the depreciation of the yen but said imports would increase only after Japan cut taxes, which he said would not happen until next year. In Seoul, after three days of talks on providing easier access to the South Korean market for motor vehicles, a U.S. negotiating team ''failed to reach an agreement'' with South Korean negotiators, the Foreign Ministry said. In Washington, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit widened to $13.9 billion in July as Asia's downturn hurt U.S. farm and manufacturing sales overseas. The trade report showed that the July deficit was 2.1 percent wider than June's imbalance of $13.6 billion That made July's the third-highest monthly deficit on record, surpassed only by May and April. The deterioration in July reflected a big jump in the U.S. deficit with Pacific Rim countries. David Aaron, U.S. under-secretary of commerce for international trade, said Thursday that Asia's crisis had increased the risk of U.S. protectionist measures. Speaking in Bangkok near the end of a two-week export-promotion trip to four Southeast Asian nations, he said markets had to be kept open for countries to recover from the crisis. ''At any time of difficulty there are temptations to protectionism that are as great in my country as in others,'' Mr. Aaron said. The collapse of the talks in Seoul raised the possibility of trade sanctions if South Korea does not change its stance by Oct. 19. Under the United States' so-called Super 301 provision, Washington can impose sanctions on nations deemed to have put up trade barriers to U.S. goods. Mary Latimer, who heads the team as Korea director for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, declined to comment, but representatives of American motor-vehicle companies said that market access had tightened in the year since the talks began. ''There are basically no imports here,'' said Wayne Chumley, president of Chrysler Korea Sales Co. Chrysler in the first eight months of this year led foreign car companies, selling 467 vehicles in South Korea, compared with 1,650 vehicles sold last year. Ford Motor Co. sold 401 cars in the first eight months, and General Motors Corp. sold none, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association. South Korean officials indicated they were not sympathetic to U.S. complaints in a period when sales of South Korean cars on the domestic market have plummeted by 50 percent from last year, and sales abroad are crumbling because of a lack of funds for parts and materials. Kim Ho Shik, deputy finance minister, said Seoul had no intention of honoring a request to lower its tariffs on vehicle imports to 4 percent from 8 percent. He said 8 percent was ''already low,'' compared with tariffs of 10 to 12 percent levied by European countries". Don't know if any of you have noticed that the US bond market in "investment grade and below" has almost collapsed here. There are simply no bids. Check the recent dividend yields on converts. Amazing.