Import

Now that the U.S. has made headway with China on world trade matters during the president's visit to New Zealand, perhaps he might wish to do something to improve our trade relations with New Zealand by showing the rest of the world that we are not as hypocritical about trade as might be thought when we seem to encourage U.S. exports but discourage imports. A case in point is the apparent embargo by the U.S. on the import of inexpensive lamb from New Zealand, which deprives us of the opportunity to enjoy real lamb products because we can only obtain the expensive mutton (from sheep that are too old to be used for anything else)

President Reagan opened a can of worms that could prove to be very troublesome when he instituted quotas on the import of Japanese cars in 1981 to help the auto industry out of economic difficulties. Although he recently canceled this form of artificial protection for American-built cars, the aftereffects are beginning to be felt. Aside from the fact that during the four-year period quotas were in effect car buyers had to shell out more than $15 billion in added costs for new cars, more and more companies are calling for quotas as a means of economic aid during difficult times.

Re: "Most Cities Meet Target for Trash Cuts," Jan. 8. If the cities are again successful in reaching their new target of reducing trash dumped at the landfills by the year 2000 by another 25%, does this mean Orange County must import even more trash to offset the reduced trash-dumping revenue? And if so, once again, how does this prolong the life of the landfill? Recall that importation was precisely the strategy the Board of Supervisors approved recently to offset reduced revenues due to successful trash recycling within the county.

I hope that President Reagan has good taste in shoes. Regarding the "Shoes Quotas a Costly Idea to Save Jobs" (June 17), it is economically unrealistic for an American to have to pay twice as much for shoes if the International Trade Commission's "novel import quota idea for the shoe industry" is adopted, for the United States to spend $50,000 to $80,000 to save each employee's $14,000 average wage, and to have the U.S. Customs Service or another agency...

Crosby M. Kelly, a pioneer in international corporate public relations and marketing, and the man who launched the nationwide sales campaign for the first Ford car produced after World War II, died Saturday of cancer at his home in Litchfield, Conn. Kelly, who was 68, had retired in 1978 as a vice president of Rockwell International, and in retirement worked as managing director of a graphics communications firm.

Re "A 'Floating' Chinese Currency Is No Life Raft for U.S. Jobs," Opinion, March 28: Sam Crane correctly argues that China's exchange-rate policies are not a major cause of the huge U.S. trade deficit and that the recent political scapegoating of China is misplaced. When he turns to China's interests, however, he gets some of his economics wrong. He rightly notes that inflation is an emerging problem but wrongly argues that a revaluation would increase inflation. This is backward. Revaluation lowers import prices.

Federal authorities have seized more than half a million pounds of frozen Japanese salmon as evidence in an alleged scam in which the fish were shipped to the United States, repackaged and returned to Japan labeled as an expensive American import. "If it says 'Made in the U.S.A.' on the label, you can get a lot more money for (salmon) in Japan," said William T. McGivern, chief assistant U.S. attorney in San Francisco. "It's the old status thing.

Re "U.S. Is the Beast of Burden for World Trade Deficits," Commentary, April 30: I agree with Sen. Jeff Bingaman that large, external trade deficits are harmful to the U.S. His proposed solution is far too narrow. Even if all international trade barriers and anti-competitive business practices were eliminated (a goal which I support), large U.S. deficits will persist undiminished as long as this country continues to import more than $100 billion of foreign capital annually. Why are we importing so much foreign capital?