19 FEBRUARY 1994, Page 23

Crossed line

THAT PORTABLE telephones are a bane of modern life is a point on which I am happy to concur with the previous Chancel- lor. He taxed them. President Clinton has made them a casus belli in his trade skir- mish with Japan. It could come to war, he says, but the Japanese would need to think long and hard about it. So would he. His bellicose gesture looks like a campaign promise left over from the days when Japan appeared all-powerful and the American economy defenceless. Now it seems dated.