Bill Clinton: “I do. I think I would point out two things. First of all, in the last calendar year, we have reached eight agreements.…”

“I do. I think I would point out two things. First of all, in the last calendar year, we have reached eight agreements. If they're all implemented fully and in good faith, there's going to be a timelag between the time those specific market sectors are opened and we begin to feel the benefits of it here in the United States. The second point I would make is that at any given time, the trade relationships between two countries will depend upon the state of the economies in those two countries. We had the good fortune of coming out of our recession more quickly than did Japan. Our growth rate has been higher for the last 2 years. Theirs is now picking up again. I would expect it would be very strong. One thing I can say to you is that imports and exports increased equally in the last 2 years, that is, by the same percentage. It was an 11 percent increase--I mean, excuse me, in this last year there was an 11 percent increase in imports from Japan and an 11 percent increase in exports to Japan. If we can implement these agreements that we have reached and if we see the Japanese economic growth rate coming up to about the American rate, then I think you will see a tightening of that trade deficit. The final point I would like to make is that it will never be in rough parity unless we continue to strengthen and discipline our own economy and, most important, unless we make some progress on autos and auto parts, because that's about 60 percent of the trade deficit. So that's a part of our framework agreement. We're about to start the talks again there. That's all in the private sector in Japan, but that's what's going to be necessary to finally get this relationship where it ought to be. But I don't think you can overread the figures from this year because of the impact of the recession and because of the time delay in implementing the eight agreements we made in '94 and their impact. We're clearly making progress, but not enough, and we have to move on auto parts and autos. World War II Commemorations”