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Kantor debuts

as commerce

secretary

TOKYO: Mickey Kantor made his overseas debut as commerce secretary on Wednesday, plugging U.S. medical equipment in Tokyo in a manner far removed from his sabre rattling in past trade battles with Japan.

This time, Kantor - like his boss President Bill Clinton after summit talks earlier in the day - was keen to stress the progress made by U.S. exporters in cracking Japan's markets.

"The U.S. has increased its exports to Japan by 20 percent last year and Japan's exports to the U.S. increased by only 3.8 percent," Kantor told reporters. "We are making progress."

Kantor was speaking after Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto signed a joint declaration reaffirming their security ties. Repairing and realigning those frayed ties has been the summit's main theme, and traditional trade squabbles took a back seat.

Kantor, who donned the Commerce Department mantle after the death of his predecessor Ron Brown earlier this month, visited a domestic power company to praise its increased procurement of foreign equipment.

Then he moved on to a Tokyo hospital where he lauded the "cutting-edge and cost effective technologies" of U.S. medical goods suppliers.-Reuter