Vp In Charge Of Sales Gore Sends Tacky Signals By Highlighting Jet Sales.

True, Germany's Helmut Kohl and France's Jacques Chirac do it, and any administration wants to facilitate exports that create jobs. But there is something terribly tacky about presidential sales promotion. Remember George Bush in the humiliating role as car salesman to Japan?

And in the case of China, such overt ``commercial democracy'' may be politically dangerous. Chinese officials seem to believe that U.S. policy is now motivated primarily, if not solely, by commercial considerations. They have played off U.S. companies like Boeing against European competitors, favoring the Europeans when U.S.-China policy sours.

There's a host of serious issues on the agenda - North Korea, future presidential summits, freer trade and human rights - and they should not be eclipsed by a business deal. U.S.-China relations are too important to make commercial agreement the centerpiece, no matter how important the China market. Let Mr. Gore leave the salesmanship to underlings and play statesman instead.