BAKER DENIES DOLLAR TARGET EXISTS

  U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker
  again said the meeting of six major industrial nations in Paris
  last month did not establish a target exchange rate for the
  dollar.
      Baker said in a television interview aired here yesterday:
  "We don't have a target for the dollar." He declined to comment
  on what might be a desired level for the dollar, saying: "We
  really don't talk about the dollar."
      He said protectionism was becoming "extremely strong" in the
  U.S. In response to widening U.S. Trade deficits and import
  barriers in other countries.
      "The mood in the United States is extremely disturbing. It's
  extremely strong," he said.
      "As I've said before, we sort of see ourselves as engaged
  here in a real struggle to preserve the world's free trading
  system, because if the largest market in the world (the U.S.)
  goes protectionist we run the risk of moving down the same path
  that the world did in the late 1930s," he said.
      While relative exchange rates had a role to play in
  defusing the threat of protectionism, it alone did not offer
  any solution, he said.
      "You must address this problem on the exchange rate side,
  but it cannot be solved on the exchange rate side alone. It's
  far more comprehensive and broad than that, and the solution of
  it requires a comprehensive approach," Baker said in the
  interview.
      Baker said it would be necessary for other countries to
  adjust their currencies upwards, as well as remove their
  barriers to U.S. Imports. But he did not elaborate or name any
  countries.
  

