Japan-bashing is out

U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter's transformation onthe Japanese seaside from raging bull to cooing dove shows that theReagan administration is pulling back from the protectionist abyss.

Whether or not Mr. Yeutter's flaming anti-Japanese rhetoric wascooled on direct orders of Washington, the change fits the new WhiteHouse mood. Japan-bashing is out. So is excessive praise forDemocratic leaders putting together trade legislation that is eitheroutright protectionist or protectionist-tainted. So on this issue atleast, the restructured White House staff under former senator HowardBaker is less than conciliatory with Congress.

Specifically, the administration now makes clear the House tradebill is excessively protectionist and thus a prime candidate forPresident Reagan's veto even if Rep. Richard Gephardt'snow-celebrated amendment is defeated. That was the purpose of thepresident's radio message last Saturday and his speech Monday to theU.S. Chamber of Commerce.

This hardly means the Reagan White House has straightened itselfout on trade. Deputy chief of staff Ken Duberstein is taking hold ofthis preeminent issue. But like Mr. Baker, Mr. Duberstein isessentially a Capitol Hill man, unequipped to weave the multiplethreads of trade policy. Indeed, so thin is the White House infinancial-monetary-trade management that the crisis in financialmarkets caused by the plunging dollar is not fully understood there.

Without a coordinator, trade policy is set by the EconomicPolicy Council chaired by Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III. Buthe must cope with Cabinet equals - Mr. Yeutter and Commerce SecretaryMalcolm Baldrige, whose hard-line views have gained currency asprotectionist fire spread on Capitol Hill.

As the architect of tariff retaliation against alleged Japanesedumping of semiconductors, Mr. Yeutter was talking tough when he leftfor Japan April 18. In a speech prepared for a conference on April20, he had intended to warn the Japanese of future retaliation.Instead, the prepared text was dumped for off-the-cuff platitudes.

Was Mr. Yeutter ordered to lighten up? "No order, whatsoever,"he replied. But senior White House aides made clear to us that theword to "ease up" had been put out. Indeed, although there are nosigns that he won any concessions from the Japanese last week, thetrade ambassador was conciliatory on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday."I am convinced that some things of a very positive vein arebeginning to happen in Japan on the trade front," he said.

Nevertheless, Mr. Yeutter's performance did not entirely pleasethe White House. There was grumbling there over his praise of Rep.Dan Rostenkowski's "magnificent job" for the trade bill that emergedfrom his House Ways and Means Committee and Mr. Yeutter's refusal tolabel it unacceptable even without the Gephardt amendment attached.

The new White House line is partly to avoid open insult toJapan's Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on his visit here. But itis more than that. The president's men are coming to learn thatappeasement of protectionism only fans the fire.

Evans & Novak are nationally syndicated columnists of theChicago Sun-Times.