Nakasone Advised to Expand Purchases Abroad

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was advised to work out a plan for his government to buy more than one billion dlrs worth of foreign industrial products as part of efforts to defuse Japan’s trade frictions with the United States, officials said.

Former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe made the recommendation at a meeting with Nakasone soon after returning from a U.S. Visit designed to pave the way for the prime minister’s visit to Washington starting next Wednesday.

Abe met President Ronald Reagan and U.S. Congressional leaders during his visit.

It was not known how Nakasone responded to the suggestion.

It also included increasing the nation’s untied loans to developing countries to between 25 billion and 30 billion dlrs over the next three years and giving foreign firms greater access to a six billion dlr international airport project in western Japan, officials said.

Abe called for tax cuts and government funds to be funneled into public works projects to stimulate domestic demand. Abe spoke of the possibility that Nakasone’s visit could coincide with the passage of a protectionist trade bill by the U.S. House of Representatives.