George H.W. Bush: “Well, Mr. Mosbacher always reflects official views except when I disagree with him. [Laughter] And that is very, very…”

“Well, Mr. Mosbacher always reflects official views except when I disagree with him. [Laughter] And that is very, very seldom. And on this one I haven't heard his statement, so I would only want to see it in full context. But look, we've got a tremendous imbalance with Japan, tremendous. And one of the reasons we're going there is to see if we can't find ways to sort that matter out. But we're enjoying sluggish times, and not enjoying them very much. And the Prime Minister has impressed on me that Australia is having difficult economic times. And the answer to all of this, whether it's in Japan-U.S. or Australia-U.S., is to get these economies going through expanded trade. And so, I'd want to know in context what Bob said, but anytime you have an extraordinarily big trade imbalance, I think you would say that that would be contributing to a lack of economic growth. And so, if that's what he said, I certainly couldn't find a way to differ with him.”