This report examines: (1) the definition(s) of managed trade, (2) the underlying economic arguments for and against such policies, (3) past U.S. experiences with managed trade, (4) perceptions that Japan is somehow "different" from other trading nations and warrants a distinctive approach to resolving trade disputes, (5) the implications of the Administration's current results oriented approach to U.S.-Japan trade issues, and (6) alternative proposals offered in Congress to resolve trade disputes with Japan.

Japanese officials interviewed for this project in May-early June 1993 were generally sanguine about relations with the United States at the start of the Clinton Administration, but the Administrations's strong emphasis on U.S.- Japan trade issues in recent months deepened their pessimism over the near term prospects of U.S.-Japan relations. They were uncertain whether U.S.- Japanese talks on trade issues prior to the Clinton-Miyazawa summit of July 1993 would reflect a basic change in U.S. trade policy that in term would alter their generally pessimistic outlook.