European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 07, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday september 7. 1985 columns & comments James Kilpatrick senator s proposed cure worse than Trade if Ness  is right about Lloyd bunt san s Trade Bill everything that is. Sac the answer he proposes. The democratic senator from Texas ordinarily one of the More responsible members of the Senate wants to slap a duty of 25 percent on All exports to the United states from Japan Brazil Taiwan and Korea. It is a thoroughly bad idea. Yet bunt san s position is understand Able. His Bill begins with a series of Mcl Anchor findings. Congress finds that our annual Trade deficit has tripled since 1981 and is expected to top $140 billion in 1985 that the l United slates is now a net external debtor for the first Lime since 1914 thai the Dollar has appreciated by More than 45 percent against major currencies in the past four years and that the massive imbalance in foreign Trade has eliminated millions of jobs in the United slates and substantially harmed communities in which affected industries arc located it is All True. The senator s Bill says that if these imbalances persist eventually they will de stroy the nations a Industrial and agricultural base. If present trends continue net external debt would reach is trillion in 1990 and would necessitate a severe reduction in the Standard of living of a americans in order to even service let alone repay such  these Are Plau sible projections. Bents evs Bill cites several causes for the imbalance in Trade our Dollar is overvalued our partners raise unfair Trade barriers we Lack a coherent Trade policy. Turning specifically to our Trade with Japan the Bill asserts that Japan has not significantly reduced its pervasive protectionism and that Japan has adopted numerous Domestic economic acts practices and policies that taken together nullify impair and violate Trade  none of Chi can be coming incl denied. The senator then gels Don to business. His Bill would impose a special standby import duty of 25 percent on the goods of any nation thai exports a great Deal More to the United states than in imports from the United states. Under his formula the Punili a duty would apply immediately on to Japan. Korea Taiwan and Brazil and it would not apply to them if they Victord began systematically to reduce their Trade surpluses. Bunt san agrees that these Are extraordinary measures but he argues that a National emergency demands them. One trouble with the senator s Bill is that its findings Are incomplete. With equal acuity he might find that . Manufacturers do a poor Job of marketing in Japan that while virtually every japanese engaged in Export Trade Speaks English very few american executives speak japanese. Chinese korean or portuguese that the cause of the overvalued Dollar is rooted in our appalling Federal deficits that these deficits arc the responsibility of a spineless Congress that the Congress is spineless because the american people Are unwilling to countenance higher taxes and lower spending. He could find All of that would the senator s Bill pro Duce results certainly it would but these might not be at All the results the senator desires. One thinks of Macbeth and his lady. They too were thinking of extraordinary measures. They were think ing of murder. The More Macbeth thought about it he wondered if their plot might but teach bloody instructions which being taught return to plague the inventor " Bentsen is positively inviting retaliation in kind. He is inviting the same worldwide consequences that Fol Lowed the Hawley Smoot Tariff 50 years ago. He is inviting disaster. It won t do. Patently something must be done especially As to Japan to improve the present intolerable situation. Bentsen s re publican colleague Bob Dole of Kansas was in Tokyo 10 Days ago and spoke to japanese leaders in ways that any Man can i stand. Protectionist fever is rising on Capitol Hill said Dole and the rage May not be contained much longer. He pleaded for relaxed barriers on meat Citrus products Wood products and telecommunications equipment. Our ambassador. Mike Mansfield is urging the same Steps. Bends in is a patient Man whose patience has run out. His Bill has a complain measure in the House sponsored chiefly by Dan Rostonkowski. D-iii., chairman of ways and Means the two gentlemen have undeniable clout. What they Lack a the vision to Sec that. Over the Long haul the cure they propose would be worse that the disease that ails us. To of tibial Preiti syndic by Tom Wicker the Rufh about Kal flight 007 has Nof been told on the second anniversary of the shooting Down of korean air lines flight 007 on sept. I. 1983. It seemed clearer than Ever that the truth of this terrible event in which 269 lives were lost has not been told. Facts keep turning up that won t fit the generally accepted version or that raise serious and unanswered questions about it. That version assiduously fostered by the Reagan administration and apparently supported by a report of the International civil aviation organization is that the Airliner innocently strayed off course on its flight across the North Pacific inadvertently flew Over soviet territory and was wantonly shot Down by soviet air defense forces. The Only thing certain about this thesis is that the russians did shoot Down right 007 but so widely accepted is the rest of it that questioners Are accused of being paranoid perpetrators of a conspiracy theory or even servants of soviet interests. Nevertheless the conventional theory is inherently implausible and May be disintegrating. An Affa Davil by a Veteran former air traffic controller asserted that the words we should warn him referring to the korean Pilot could be heard on a recording of United states radar operators made several hours before the plane was shot Down Over Sakhalin Island. The affidavit was filed last week As evidence in a civil lawsuit against the United states government and Kal by surviving rela Tives of those who died aboard 007. The Federal judge conducting the trial will hear the tape and Rule As to whether these words in fact can be heard. If they can be they contradict the Reagan administration s repeated if hard to believe claim that no american knew that right 007 was in trouble during More than five hours when it flew Oil course by hundreds of Miles across skies in which the United states deploys avast array of electronic sentinels. That claim was considerably tarnished when in the same trial the government disclosed last february that air Force tape recordings of radar tracks of part of the Airliner s course had been destroyed. Such tapes Are nor Mally recycled 30 hours after being recorded but the Fate of right 007 was known in less than 30 hours after the tapes were made. In View of the International importance of the Inci Dent How could these tapes have been routinely destroyed As claimed last May. Prime minister Naka Sone of Japan released to an inquiring member of the diet data from japanese defense Agency monitors that tracked right 007 As it entered and flew Over soviet territory. The data detailed significant changes of Alti tude and Speed by the korean plane while radio trans missions ostensibly from its pilots described quite Dif Ferent Maneu vers. This new information withheld from the Public for nearly a year and a half not Only suggests that As they new Over Sakhalin the pills were taking evasive action while deceiving Tokyo air traffic controllers. In directly contradicts both the administration s version of events and the Ciao report on which that version heavily relics. Both claim that the pilots not knowing they Wen entering soviet territory maintained their assigned Tudic until shot Down. The state department queried by the nation nug aunt which published in its aug. 17-24 Issue u account of new developments in the right 007 Cue said the Ciao had been Given the japanese def ejae. Agency data and had considered in in its report. But member of the organization s inquiry team Tow the nation that the Ciao had never seen the Altitude Tad Speed a la. On the very Day flight 007 was destroyed Stltt japanese defense Agency issued a map describing face Airliner s course As a Broad arc Over Sakhalin a total urn of about 20 degrees. But to arrive Over Sakhalin to the Point of interception by a soviet fighter. Flight 001 must first have made a northward Lurn from the Ono Laon which in departed Anchorage. These two turns which from data now available Mem indisputable not Only belie president Rittu l statement thai when incr copied inc plane had beat l my a straight line course r for two and a half hour together with the newly released Speed and Altitude Ges a Rcd by the japanese defense Agency the turns suggest that the pills knew where they we Reud deliberately flew Over soviet territory. This too would re � to nor Bolh the administration and the Ciao