Trade and Politics: Mission Impossible

It isn't easy to single out the low point of the trade mission to Japan that George Bush completed last week. Was it that his pleas for stepped-up Japanese purchases of American auto parts belittled the presidency and made him seem the tool of overpaid corporate CEOs? Or that the largely unenforceable agreements he reached were soon denounced as inadequate by the U.S. automobile executives who accompanied him on the journey? Or did the nadir come when the President threw up on the trousers of Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and then passed out at a state dinner in Tokyo?

The spectacle of Miyazawa cradling the prostrate leader of the free world in his lap was doubly unsettling and sent shudders around the globe. White House spokesmen assured the public that Bush was suffering from nothing more serious than exhaustion and a stomach-churning touch of gastroenteritis. Still, the brief fainting spell brought to the fore concerns about the President's health and reminded voters that Dan Quayle remains only a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Far worse for Bush, the image was an obvious metaphor for the American economy: flat on its back, seeking succor from a resurgent Japan.

That was not the pose Bush meant to strike when he embarked on the star- crossed 12-day journey to Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan. Planned last November as a routine diplomatic swing, the trip was hastily converted by White House officials into a full-blown trade mission after growing public dissatisfaction with Bush's handling of the recession triggered a steep drop in his approval ratings. In an effort to counter criticism that he cares more about foreign policy than the woes of unemployed Americans, Bush proclaimed the trip was about generating "jobs, jobs, jobs." As he explained in an interview just before his departure, "I'll do what I have to do to be re-elected."

He should have stayed home. The President's call for free trade boomeranged in Australia, where farmers were quick to point out that export subsidies for American grain prevent wheat grown Down Under from being sold competitively in the world marketplace.

Once he got to Japan, Bush's odyssey degenerated into the trip from hell, as the President was forced to endure politely phrased, but nonetheless pointed, reminders from his hosts about America's shortcomings. During a joint press conference with Miyazawa, Bush sat silently as the Japanese leader ticked off a list of domestic woes that have damaged American competitiveness: from homelessness and the AIDs epidemic to a decline in education. Though Miyazawa added, "Since Americans themselves are aware of these problems, I am convinced they will overcome these problems," Bush looked a bit like an overextended borrower sitting through a condescending lecture from an impatient loan officer.

Miyazawa, fearful of adding to growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S., did not want to send Bush home empty-handed. But the bargain struck in Tokyo will do little to cure the recession, create new jobs, or narrow the $41 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan over the long term. Under pressure to open their markets, the Japanese agreed in the final hours of Bush's tour to find ways to buy more American cars, auto parts, computers, glass and paper. Some of these concessions were in the works long before Bush arrived; others sounded good, but were less than met the eye.