Voices : U.S.-JAPAN TRADE ACCORD

Reaction to Wednesday’s trade agreement:

“Today, Japan has agreed that it will begin to truly open its auto and auto-parts markets to American companies. This agreement is specific. It is measurable. It will achieve real, concrete results.”

--President Clinton

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“This agreement will not solve all our problems. Let’s not give hyperbole a bad name.”

--Mickey Kantor, U.S. trade representative

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“It’s a great day for Californians--for the 150,000 workers whose jobs are no longer at risk, as well as for the consumers who no longer have to worry about increased auto prices.”

--Fred Miller, chief spokesman of The Alliance to Save California Jobs

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“Beyond merely extracting promises from the Japanese government, we must hold them to their word and require them to live up to the promises they’ve made.”

--Richard Gephardt, House Democratic leader

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“The White House advertised this as a gunfight at the OK Corral. But it turned out that the President was only shooting blanks.”

--Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.)

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“If the understanding is opening up the Japanese market only for Americans ... then it is a violation of the basic rule of multilateral agreements and free trade.”

--Martin Bangemann, EU Industry Commissioner

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“This successful agreement is a victory not just for the United States and Japan, but also for the newly created [World Trade Organiztion] and its member countries.”

--Ryutaro Hashimoto, Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry

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“It’s very, very good for us and all the parts makers in the U.S. It’s going to mean more employment in the U.S. and plant expansion in the U.S.”

--Richard Snell, president and chief executive of Tenneco, the world’s largest supplier of shocks, struts and exhausts pipes for cars

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“It’s back to business as usual now. ‘We’re relieved.”

--Rooky Neufeld, the sales manager at Lexus of Santa Monica