European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 27, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes Ernest Conine the demanding economic Challenge of our time president elect George Bush has t Laid out his Agenda As yet but associates say that despite his Lack of emphasis on the subject in Campaign speeches he eels strongly about the need to strengthen the competitive position or America. We should All Hope that this is the Case. America is still a Rich country. But we Are like a family living in the biggest House in town the foun Dation of which Are being eaten away. In 1981 America led the world in ethnology and in financial and military Power. We May still be supreme in military muscle bul not in the other Hoo categories. Color television and the Var were first developed in this country. So were transistors integrated circuits microprocessors optical fibres robots and a Host of other technologies. Yet by 1984 Tokyo s Long term credit Bank could boast that Japan had taken the Lead in virtually All of these areas As Well As in semiconductor lasers Carbon fibres office copiers and facsimile equipment. Our own National Academy of engineering concluded of 34 critical technologies the japanese were Superior in 25 of them. And the trend continues. While , researchers Are holding their own in the critical new Field of super conductors american Industry is Well behind that of the japanese in the development of superconductor applications the United states is in front with supercomputers and biotechnology bul the japanese Are driving for supremacy in those areas too. Meanwhile . Industry is already being left be Hind by the europeans and the japanese in the important new Field of nigh definition television. The pattern has been for pioneering discoveries to be made in american universities and laboratories Only to have the japanese and sometimes others emerge supreme in product development and Market share. Now even the , Lead in research is being undermined. The United Stales still leads in total research an development but too much of the american Effort is concentrated in the defense sector where applications Are often irrelevant 1o commercial product development. " the . Trade balance has improved this year but the deficit is still huge and threatens to remain so. We Are balancing he books by borrowing from abroad and Selling off our assets. Angry rhetoric and protectionism Are not the answer. After nil the governments of competing nations Are Only doing what they believe is Best for their peo ple. It makes much More sense to demand that Ameri can government business education and other ins Titu Tom Wicker environment tons work with the same intelligence and dedication in our behalf. The emergence of Japan to economic supremacy did t just happen. In his excellent Book trading places Clyde v. Prestowitz outlines How history has Given the japanese a deeply rooted instinct to Maxi Mize exports and minimize imports to resist a significant foreign economic presence in Japan to dominate whatever markets they enter and to exploit everybody else s technology while restricting Access to their own. The japanese government has officially embraced a policy of encouraging More imports while depending less on exports to drive the Economy. But there is no sign of a real change in the National mind set. Part of that mind set is close cooperation betwee business and government. Companies work closely with the powerful japanese economic ministries in deciding which areas and technologies should be developed. Then they go to work to Excel in the targeted areas with full government support. That support has frequently taken the form of arrangements Tor Low borrowing costs help in organizing consortium for joint action and protectionist Mea sures o hold foreign competitors at Bay while the Jap anese Effort proceeds. Prudent use of the new . Trade Law to try to. Enforce reciprocal treatment can help. Bul a lot of experts believe thai the larger need is for structural changes in America s own economic and trading environment. It s ludicrous for example that the tax Laws actually encourage corporate borrowing for debilitating takeovers thai reduce the capital available for research and development. It is irrational to have antitrust Laws that discourage the pooling of resources among american compan Fei but fail o Deal with the cart Mike practices of their overseas makes no tense hat japanese scientists hav Access to the universities and institutes where Ameri can discoveries Are made but that our people Lack com parable Access to japanese presidential leadership is needed not just to make the needed changes in government policies but also to do some evangelical work with american Busi Ness people. Japanese companies for example like to make a. Profit but within the framework of what is Good for japanese society As a whole. To a lot of today s Ameri can corporate leaders that sort of thinking is laughably old fashioned. But it s one that the american people deserve to have taken seriously. Newm Conant it i Odit wih cd Mirtil to it lot Angui Ftp Jpn pts the presidential candidates., did no mention and probably few americans noticed a Brief chilling new York times report from Beijing on oct. 28 20 million chinese May starve and another80 million Wilt endure severe food Short Ages in the coming months. A natural disaster yes floods and droughts devastated China this year but its coming orca is Man made Loo. An area of China the size of Italy about 129,000 Square Miles has been denuded of forests and become a virtual desert in the last 30 years. The Conse Quence of indiscriminate cutting for fire Wood Limber and agricultural made floods and drought inevitable and their consequences worse to its credit China has undertaken the world s largest reforestation project More than 4.s million hectares a year including a 4,000-mile great Green Wall of Irros shrubs and other plantings. Whether the tide of Sand Environ mental destruction and death can be re versed is not certain bul the Effort is surely coming too late for the millions of chinese facing starvation this Winter. Elsewhere the deforestation of inc Earth at its worst in the devel Oping world seems to be proceeding world watch Institute has reported for example that in less than a dec Ade Forest cover within 100 Kilometres of India s major cities dropped by is per cent or More he area surrounding Delhi lost a staggering 60 percent mostly to firewood cutting. A new publication of the world re sources Institute and the International Institute for environment and development notes moreover that "600,000 hectares of closed forests Are lost each year in Indonesia alone. A hectare a about 2.5 acres. A ".-, around the world 11 million hectares of tropical Forest and other Woodlands Ore lost annually. With world Trade in Wood and Wood products projected to grow for the next 50 years and with the world s rapidly growing population in dire need of More agricultural land and firewood about half the world s population already relies on non commercial firewood As us sole Energy source the Desteni fyn of much of the Earth is a real and present Prospect. Deforestation is one of the worst environmental crises facing the nations of the world bul it is by no Means the Only one much has has been written about the greenhouse effect the Ozone layer and acid rain none of which Honor National boundaries or even hemispheric differences. World resources 1988 1989, the new publication already referred to Points out in in summary alone that Over 60 percent of the world s productive dry lands in glands. Rain fed croplands and irrigated dry lands have suffered losses of biological productivity possibly leading to desert like conditions in sub Saham Africa Over 80 percent of dry Range lands Are desert fied already. A decade from now the Urban population of developing regions will to twice the size of the developed world s Urban population half the Earth s population compared to Only 30 percent in 1950, will live in Urban areas the most potent generators of sewage trash and Industrial waste which few cities in developing areas Are properly equipped to handle. Habitat losses of All types mostly Forest destruction threaten species diversity the loss of which endangers the richly intertwined ecosystems of the Earth in Southeast Asia 68 percent of wildlife habitat has disappeared and in sub saharan Africa 65 percent has Beta lost. Worldwide fuel combustion at High temperature now emits into the Atmo sphere every year More than 20 million metric tons of nitric oxide a major contributor to smog acid rain and in greenhouse effect. the world s strained and exploited resources now supporting about s Bil lion people in varying degree of misery and affluence will have to sustain life for More than 8 billion by 2025 a . Pro Section. Africa s population alone then will equal those of Europe North and South America these threats to life on this battered and abused Globe Are More ominous and immediate than the danger of nuclear. president elect George Bush is de in ruined to protect real National Security he can t relegate such crucial issues of survival to bureaucratic backwaters in inc state department or the Environ mental Protection Agency they belong on the president s own desk the Day he enters the Oval office an idea that Calls for another article Wjk two
