UNITED-STATES-JAPAN RELATIONS AT THE CROSSROADS

Despite four decades of trade liberalization Japanese markets for manufacturers, services, and agriculture remain closed to the United States and the rest of the world. Manufactured goods rarely make their way into Japan except when produced by Japanese firms abroad. Dornbusch determines that the difficulty of access has nothing to do with special economic conditions of the Japanese economy nor with the shoddiness of foreign goods. Instead, he feels it reflects a culture determinedly opposed to two-way trade. For the EC, United States and Japan, the road ahead could lead to a trade agreement, trade conflict or the development of a protectionist tri-polar world.