[PEN-L:5168] Re.: Trade Sanctions

[John Rosenthal <ROSLG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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 Thanks for Barney Hope's very helpful posting on Japan/US trade issues.
 I have one question concerning this matter -- for him or anyone else.
 Why do you suppose the sanctions are being levied on specifically
 Japanese *luxury* cars?  A susbsequent poster has suggested that the Clinton/
 Kantor team is just threatening to do what all other governments do
 in fact whatever might be their ostensible principles: viz. to protect
 the domestic market from import penetration.  I don't think matters are quite
 so simple.  It doesn't seem obvious to me that the consumer finding themselves
 priced out of a Lexus is then going to run to the nearest Cadillac
 dealership.  So long as duties are levied only on *Japanese* luxury
 cars and not simply foreign luxury cars tout court, the evident beneficiaries
 are going to be rather *European* manufacturers, since it is *their*
 products which are in direct competition with the former.  I can well
 imagine the joy presently being experienced at Daimler-Benz headquarters.

      I suspect that there is much more going on here than meets the eye.
 We tend to think nowadays in terms of economic blocs -- the European,
 the Asian, the American -- each acquiring unity through the directive
 functions of their respective hegemonic "centers": the German-French "partner-
 ship", Japan, and the US.  But perhaps this "paradigm-shift" is a
 bit premature.  Within each of these blocs nations continue to lead a
 more than just vestigial existence and their ruling elites seek to cut
 all sorts of deals with the elites of nations -- whether the hegemons or
 the hegemonized -- pertaining to other "blocs".  So the reality remains in
 fact "polyvalent", so to say.  It seems to me at the moment the true
 bons amis are the (ruling elites of the) US and (those of) Germany,
 which have entered into an era -- whether it will endure for very long
 is, of course, another matter -- of virtually pursuing a common policy in
 many areas.  Think only of the Balkans (and with respect to the latter,
 it is clear that the turning-point in establishing a unified policy was
 precisely the election of BC).  Perhaps this has something to do with
 the matter.

      In this whole context, it will be interesting to see what consequences
 the election of Chirac will bring with it.  For some slight anecdotal
 evidence that "France" (i.e. the currently dominant elites) will now
 seek its own "external support" in Asia, cf. the front-page article in
 Saturday's *Le Monde* on "Les tropismes asiatiques du president".

                                    John Rosenthal
                                    roslg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx