Bill Clinton: “Well, let me say, in the last 6 months my personal trust and admiration for Prime Minister Hosokawa has only increased…”

“Well, let me say, in the last 6 months my personal trust and admiration for Prime Minister Hosokawa has only increased, and for the government, because of political reform, because Japan exercised leadership in the Uruguay round, because of the initiatives on construction and rice, because of the fight for tax reform and the stimulus, because of the deregulation effort. I think that Japan is moving in the right direction. Both of us came to this office carrying, if you will, the accumulated either fears or experiences of years and years of trade negotiations and frustrations. So I would say that this trust issue, I would hope, can be worked out. But I don't want to minimize it. I think it's a very serious problem because the other approaches have still left us with such a huge trade deficit which causes consumer prices to be very high in Japan and which puts our people here and our economy in a very difficult situation. So I would say that the rest of our relationship is in good shape, the security relationship, the political relationship. I would say that my level of personal trust in the Prime Minister and his government is very strong. But I would say this is a serious problem.”