No Trade Agreement; Deadline This Evening

Pushing themselves to the brink of a trade war, the top American and Japanese trade officials tried but failed early today to resolve their dispute over U.S. access to Japan’s car market.

The Clinton administration says that with no agreement by 8:59 p.m. PDT today, it will impose 100 percent tariffs on Toyota’s Lexus, Honda’s Acura and other Japanese luxury cars. That would price them out of the U.S. market.

The Lexus LS480, for instance, will rise in price from $55,000 to well over $80,000.

U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor and Japanese Trade Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto held talks Tuesday night and early this morning, then broke up with plans to resume later this morning.

Lower-level officials remained at the table after the top negotiators were gone, and some sources said the talks were likely to continue right up to the deadline.

Hashimoto was pessimistic heading into Tuesday’s negotiations after six days of talks, including two between the nation’s top trade officials.

“I have never been optimistic from the start,” Hashimoto told reporters as he left his hotel for the evening session with Kantor.

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were serious differences in all the major areas. One official said it would be very hard to reach an agreement by the U.S. deadline.

Exports of cars and auto parts account for half of Japan’s $66 billion-a-year trade surplus with the United States.

U.S. automakers sold about 15,000 cars and trucks in Japan last year, while Japanese companies sold more than 3.5 million in this country, Kantor has said.

Private companies appeared to be making more headway than the official negotiators.

Japanese car makers have stepped up production in the United States to avoid import duties, and Chrysler announced Tuesday it was buying a car distributor in Japan to boost its sales there.