Trade Talks Remain Deadlocked U.S., Japan ‘Still Wide Apart’ As Auto Tariff Deadline Looms

The United States and Japan remained deadlocked in their automobile dispute Thursday, less than a week before the threatened imposition of the biggest U.S. trade sanctions in history.

“My frank impression is that the positions of Japan and the United States are still wide apart,” Atsushi Ohi, a senior Japanese trade ministry official, said after more than three hours of negotiations.

“At this point there is no basis for optimism or pessimism,” said Ira Shapiro, legal advisor to U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor.

Washington plans to slap punitive import tariffs worth $5.9 billion against 13 Japanese luxury automobiles next Wednesday unless Tokyo makes market opening concessions.

In previous trade confrontations, Japan gave way at the last minute. But this time it seems more intent on standing up to the United States.

“We are not taking the position of compromising or giving in just because there is a threat,” said Ohi.

Mindful of potential damage in bilateral relations, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama last week ordered the resumption of negotiations to defuse the row. The talks are scheduled to end today, but officials say they may continue until the deadline.

The first day of the vice-ministerial level talks was largely devoted to explaining existing positions, officials said. Lower-level experts were due to continue thrashing out technical details later Thursday.

Washington has three main demands. It wants to increase the number of dealerships selling U.S. cars. It wants Japanese companies to boost purchases of spare parts and it wants more deregulation on the car parts market to let foreign firms compete better against local ones.