Bill Clinton: “We do not want that. I mean, I think this is the nub of the disagreement, and I think I understand the Japanese position…”

“We do not want that. I mean, I think this is the nub of the disagreement, and I think I understand the Japanese position in addition to the American position. We do not want Japan to commit to a specific volume of imports by a specific time. We do want to assess whether we are making progress toward opening markets with the use of objective criteria rather than just change processes. One of those criteria would be, what is the difference in the level of imports; another might be, as I said earlier, the exchange rate changes; another might be the state of domestic demand in Japan; another might be the quality and price of the American product as evidenced by how well it's doing in our market or in Europe or somewhere else; another might be whether the American company or the American companies had made the necessary effort to do business in Japan. In other words, we understand why Japan does not wish to put itself in the position of having to manage its trade in that way. And I think probably what the Japanese negotiators fear is if there is a number in there, even along with a lot of other criteria, that either under my administration or at some time in the future, it will be used as the only basis for evaluating whether America should impose some sort of trade sanctions. That is not our intent. But I think it's fair to say that that is the core of our disagreement. That is, when you put the question the way you did, I agree with your position. But that is not what we are asking to do. North Korea”