(Friday, June 27, 1995, 9:40 p.m. PDT) — One day before a U.S.-imposed deadline for reaching an auto trade accord with Japan, U.S. President Bill Clinton defended his record as a free-trader today but vowed that he is ready to slap punitive tariffs on Japanese luxury cars if there isn’t a deal.

“I am not trying to launch a new era of protectionism, but we have tried now for two or three decades to open this market and this is the last major block to developing a sensible global economic policy,” Clinton told the Pacific Rim Economic Conference in Portland, Oregon.