ABSTRACT
The New Protectionism constitutes merely a single aspect of the politicization of international economic relations. Politicization may take the form not only of barriers to imports but also of pressure applied by one country against another for purposes of economic advantage. In relations between the United States and Japan, political manipulation has progressively displaced the role of economic rationality. A basic cause of the politicization of US-Japanese economic relations is misperception or misrepresentation of the relation between economic cause and effect. The politicization of US economic relations with Japan reverberated ironically in the Carter Administration's campaign to secure Congressional approval of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Tokyo Round agreement. The special interest groups that have politicized economic demands of one sort or another have come to dominate the decisions of government.
