Business: Trade Trooper

Carter’s “quiet “new negotiator

As the U.S. Special Trade Representative, Texas Lawyer Robert Strauss had a well-earned reputation for pugnacity. Japan’s Yoshizane Iwasa, former Fuji Bank chief, recalls that “I met him three times, and each time he pounded the table.” It may come as a relief to those who deal with the U.S. on trade and tariff matters that among the qualities Jimmy Carter says he values in Strauss’s successor are his quietness and modesty.

Reubin O’Donovan Askew charged out of the Florida legislature in 1970 to become the Sunshine State’s first successive two-term Governor. At 51, he is a proven administrator and a professed free trader, but his experience in international trade relations is considered rudimentary.

What Carter may have found appealing about Askew is the political Southern comfort that the popular former Governor might bring the President in the 1980 campaign. The Florida Democratic convention’s straw vote takes place in mid-November (Carter was first taken seriously as a candidate when he won that vote in 1975) and the state’s important primary falls on March 11, just two weeks after New Hampshire’s.

In his new job, Askew is responsible for supervising U.S. trade relations. As a political ally, however, the White House may wish that Askew were more statesmanlike. At his confirmation hearings before the Senate Finance Committee, Askew risked setting off protests among one increasingly vocal constituency. He said bluntly about his hiring practices: “I will not have a known homosexual on my staff.” He later added that he would “fully comply” with all federal employment rules. Said an Askew aide: “Sometimes I wish he were more diplomatic.”