U.S. president Bill Clinton's announcement that Washington will slap 100 percent tariffs on 13 automobiles produced in Japan for export to the United States - unless a deal can be worked out by June 28 - is the most serious escalation of the Tokyo-Washington rivalry in some years.

The bipartisan stab at the Big Three's competitors in Japan may have unanticipated consequences. The owners of auto plants across the Pacific are in no mood to comply, facing a profit squeeze of their own. The tariff hike follows right on the heels of the administration's decision to slap a trade embargo on Iran, a move that is also aimed at Japan. The U.S. government - albeit unsuccessfully so far - has put heavy pressure on imperialist powers, including Tokyo, to join in the assault on Tehran's sovereignty. This directly threatens Japan's oil supply, since it imports 600,000 barrels per day from Iran.

Governments grouped in the European Union, embroiled in their own trade conflicts with Uncle Sam, took a cool attitude toward the Clinton sanctions. The London daily Financial Times editors warned, "By proposing measures which almost certainly violate the rules of the World Trade Organization, Washington is signaling its disregard for the new body before it is even properly established," a worry that others will qualify for similar treatment.

The intended beneficiaries of the sanctions - the auto bosses in the United States - are in a joyous mood. Already swimming in big profits this year, they are hoping the pressure on Japan will give them still more of an edge. At the same time administration strategists are pushing a cynical ploy to whip up support for their course among working people in the United States.

"The U.S. is not going to stand by and watch its workers and its products unfairly treated," said White House trade hatchet man Mickey Kantor. Since the cars on the initial sanctions list all cost more than $25,000, the New York Times argued the list was "more a political masterpiece than an economic one- enabling Mr. Clinton to argue that he has punished Japan without hurting middle-class American consumers. As one of Mr. Clinton's political advisers said in half jest the other day, 'So we lose the Lexus vote in Greenwich, [Connecticut].' "

The projected sanctions are the latest in a series of trade skirmishes between the main capitalist powers. U.S. capitalists, who have gone further in the past decade in driving down the price of labor power, are using the protectionist bludgeon to make sure they stay on top. Japan's vehicle exports to the United States have fallen by half since 1986, to 1.6 million last year.

It is the working class in Japan and the United States, ultimately, that will pay a high price for the aggressive moves of the capitalist powers toward one another as these conflicts become more virulent. That's why workers should reject protectionist proposals advanced by governments, bosses, and union officials. Instead, the labor movement should organize a common movement of workers across national boundaries to fight for jobs for all.  
 
 
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