	 issues straining ec s patience with japan member states of the european community are starting to run out of patience with japan which they believe has repeatedly promised major initiatives to open its market to imports but as often made only minor moves diplomatic sources here said several recent actions by ec countries bear witness to a new disillusionment with the willingness or at least the ability of the japanese government to reduce its massive  surplus with the ec however they said an all out  war may be far off as ec states know they would suffer almost as much as japan senior ec diplomats gave a generally favourable reaction to an ec executive commission proposal under which the ec could raise tariffs on a range of japanese products if the u s carries out a threat to make a similar move on april the ec tariffs which would involve renouncing obligations entered into with the world  body gatt would be designed to stop a diversion of exports to the ec market from that of the u s the diplomats were meeting as tokyo announced that the ec s  deficit with japan reached a record billion dlrs in march up from billion in february reuter 
