Tokyo Reduces Import Levies On 1,800 Items --- U.S. Expects Little Impact On Japan Trade Surplus; Further Steps Awaited
TOKYO -- Japan announced broad tariff reductions including the elimination of tariffs on items such as auto parts and certain telephone equipment.</br></br>But U.S. and Japanese officials said the impact of the reductions on Japan's trade surplus isn't likely to be large. What's more, they said Japanese officials are having trouble drafting a broader package of trade measures that is scheduled to be announced next month.</br></br>Japanese officials said the latest tariff cuts are the broadest since a similar sweeping reduction in 1972. This time, tariffs were eliminated on 32 industrial products such as telephone exchanges, laminated automobile glass and aluminum airplane skins. Tariffs on about 1,800 further items were reduced about 20% each. The Japanese also announced a readiness to eliminate all tariffs on manufactured items if other leading industrial countries do the same. They said they currently are negotiating a reciprocal agreement with the U.S. to eliminate tariffs on computer equipment.</br></br>Tokyo is trying to ward off anti-Japanese legislation threatened by the U.S. Congress. Japanese officials estimated that the tariff cuts could cost Japan as much as $400 million a year in lost revenue. They said the cuts required days of sometimes acrimonious infighting within the government and ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which is backed by business leaders and farmers here. But a U.S. official, asked whether the tariff cuts would affect the U.S. trade deficit with Japan, just laughed.</br></br>"It isn't going to have a significant effect," he said, noting that the U.S. trade deficit with Japan is likely to swell to $50 billion this year from $37 billion last year.