President Clinton deserves high marks for the timing as well as the alacrity he displayed in naming U.S. trade ambassador Mickey Kantor to succeed the late Ron Brown as Secretary of Commerce.
Even so, there's room for wondering if the White House really chose the right man for the job.Coming only 10 days after Brown died in a Croatian plane crash, the appointment followed a new report confirming the wisdom and effectiveness of the work Kantor has helped do in tearing down international trade barriers.
The report confirms that under a 1995 trade agreement, exports to Japan by America's Big Three auto makers rose 36 per cent in the first two months of 1996 over a year earlier. The historic agreement is just one of 21 accords that Kantor has worked out with the Japanese, helping to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Tokyo.
As trade ambassador, Kantor was internationally famous for his confrontational tactics and for a hot temper he sometimes directed at the White House as well as at aides and reporters who displeased him. But as secretary of commerce, Kantor will be in the potentially awkward position of having to try to promote U.S. exports by sweet-talking some of the same world leaders whose arms he previously twisted.
But then the U.S. should not put international economic wheeling-and-dealing ahead of Washington's efforts to defend human rights around the world and keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of some of our trade partners.
Moreover, in his dealings with Congress, Kantor's skills as a tough negotiator could be just what's needed now that Republicans lawmakers are misguidedly trying to scrap the Commerce Department.
The GOP move comes just when Commerce has finally overcome years of mismanagement and learned to compete more vigorously and effectively in promoting American exports. Moreover, the parts of the department to be eliminated are the very ones that promote exports and encourage research in new technology. The other two-thirds of the department's functions would be spread among other segments of the federal establishment.
A man of great ability and astonishing energy, Kantor is to be congratulated on his challenging new assignment. But if he is to fully succeed as secretary of commerce, he will have to become more than the tough negotiator he already is. He also will have to become an adroit salesman. For that to happen, Kantor will have to learn how to apply less vinegar and more honey.