We were able to explain to the Japanese that an open world trading system was at stake and that it could not be maintained unless Japan, one of the key economies in the world, was a full participant in that trading system, not just a half participant. We come at it from different points of view, but I think they really did get that message.
I feel they do understand the importance of an open world trading system, that Japan can’t really exist other than in an open trading system. Now I’m not sure they fully accept our argument that Japanese markets are closed. Their perspective is that we are basically noncompetitive and that closed markets are, in effect, cultural.
They are, in a sense, all of a piece. Security changes its character significantly since there is no one overriding threat. There are still a lot of concerns around. There’s a lot of turbulence. To build support for democratic institutions in some of these countries where democracy is a very new phenomenon requires an open trading system. One of the things we were able to demonstrate to the Japanese was the value of imports into the United States from developing nations, as compared to the value of imports into Japan from developing nations. It’s dramatically different. That’s how they all tie together. Japan is really key in order to be able to help economically to develop political pluralism.
