The current trade incident has given me an opportunity to think through certain questions that have been worring me. I was wondering if anyone could help me.

(1) What are the strategies/calculations (or miscalculations) of the major actors, such as the Japanese automobile companies and MITI? In what way are they rational/irrational?

(2) To what extent is this issue imbedded in and likely to affect the international trade/investment regime, especially among G7 countries? What explains the different perceptions/interests of the international trade/investment regime among US, EU, and Japan (or are the perceptions the same)?

(3) To what extent does this issue reflect and affect domestic policy making? Does this reflect a temporary contingency in domestic policymaking, or is it a new trend?

In short what theoretical/analytical implications can we draw from the fact that a long string of US-Japan trade disputes since the1970s has accumulated in this way? What do the attitudes of the US, Japan, and EU tell us about the ACTUAL institutions/practices of the postwar international trade/investment regime and its evolution? And to what extend does the reaction of each country (including the EU) confirm or defy what we know about domestic interets and policy making?

Nobuhiro Hiwatari
Cambridge UK.