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Japan Ponders a Pacific Triangle
| Article
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19838 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1991 |
3,884 Words |
| Author
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Kiyoaki Kikuchi
Kiyoaki Kikuchi is a senior advisor to the Matsushita Electric
Industrial Company in Japan. Kikuchi, who has served as
Japan's ambassador to Mexico and Canada and has had two tours
of duty in Washington, D.C., was one of the original advocates
of a "Pacific-North America" economic bloc and has been
dealing with the United States on trade matters since 1951. |
Much has been written lately about future trade blocs. Most of the world's attention focuses on the pros and cons of the impending EC-92. And some analysts have examined the potential for Asian trade blocs or new oil cartels. Little, however, has been written about the North American trade bloc, although much is being done. This article examines the possibilities for this bloc.
This author attended a recent seminar entitled "Japan's Relations with North America--The New Pacific Interface," organized by the North America Institute in Vancouver, Canada, and a seminar organized by the Ministry of External Relations of Mexico and other Mexican institutions that has as its theme "Mexico's Perspective in the Pacific Basin." I was invited to those seminars perhaps because I have had the rather unique experience of having been Japan's ambassador to both Mexico and Canada.
What impressed me most about the Mexican seminar was its full representation; it included government leaders, opposition party members, and academics. My original understanding was that Mexico never wanted to be a part of "North America," always insisting that it belongs to Latin America, not to North America, which means, to them, the United States. Now, Mexicans are discussing with great gusto a greater North American market. It seems that Mexicans have shed their old aversion to the colossus to the north, as far as trade and investment are concerned.
No other time would be more opportune than this for discussing the North American market and Japan. There are two reasons: One is that, in the past, too much attention has been placed on the trade and investment relations between the United States and Japan, particularly in Japan. By doing so, one tends to lose sight of the overall relation between North America and the western Pacific. The second reason is that at present Japan is in a good position to expand quantitatively and improve qualitatively its relations with North America because it has financial resources and industrial capabilities that can be utilized for the general good of both parties.
When we consider the relationship between North America and Japan, it is always convenient to set the United States at the center, not just because of political considerations, but also from the viewpoint of the trade volume between the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. The United States and Canada have the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, exceeding $160 billion a year. Japan-U.S. trade comes in second, with a total volume of nearly $140
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