	japan given little hope of avoiding u s sanctions a top u s official said japan has little chance of persuading the u s to drop threatened  sanctions despite the efforts of a japanese team that left for washington today michael armacost under secretary of state for political affairs was asked at a press conference whether japan s moves to boost its domestic economy and open its markets could persuade the u s not to impose tariffs on japanese imports said and replied it is probably too early for the figures to demonstrate that the situation has turned around and to permit the result you have described armacost said the u s hopes japan will take steps to lift its domestic economy and reduce dependence on exports remove barriers to imports and settle outstanding  issues there are obvious problems at the moment in the  area but we do not wish those problems to divert attention from important areas of cooperation that continue to exist on security and political issues he said the question is whether through cooperative actions between our governments we can reduce the  imbalance or whether congress takes action to reduce it through protectionist legislation he said reuter 
