WASHINGTON _ (AP) _ Democrats on Thursday urged President Bush to take a hard line against Japanese trade barriers when he meets with Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu this weekend, but they delayed action on retaliatory legislation. House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., told Bush in a letter he should go into the meeting Saturday in California with the new prime minister armed with specific proposals for opening the Japanese market to more U.S. exports. ``The time for talking about the problem is coming to an end and the time to actually produce results is here,'' Gephardt said, referring to a continuing annual $50 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan. Bush and Kaifu are meeting just a week after trade negotiators for the two countries made little progress in talks in Tokyo on removing structural barriers that effectively keep U.S. products and services out of the Japanese markets. U.S. officials had hoped for more progress after the ruling Liberal Democatic Party's large victory in Japan's parliamentary election Feb. 18, but the last round of talks remained focused largely on technical matters. ``Our negotiators are now complaining openly about Japanese intransigence,'' said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee's trade subcommittee. Baucus had planned to asked the committee Thursday to approve a bill directing the administration to retaliate with new U.S. barriers to Japanese goods if Tokyo doesn't agree by a June 17 deadline to lower its barriers to American wood products. The deadline, established by the 1988 Trade Act, also applies to Japanese barriers to U.S. satellites and semiconductors. Baucus, however, agreed to withhold the bill after U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills told him in a letter Thursday the administration is prepared to retaliate on its own ``should the negotiations not conclude satisfactorily and on time.'' ``Hopefully, President Bush and Prime Minister Kaifu can make progress on these isses this weekend,'' he said. Baucus estimated that Japanese tariffs, building codes and other structural barriers are effectively keeping out between $1 billion and $2 billion in U.S. forest products at a cost of 10,000 jobs in this country.
