U.S., Canada and Japan Ease Computer Curbs
The United States, Canada and Japan have agreed to eliminate most tariffs on imported computer parts, representatives of the three governments announced Friday.
The move could reduce costs to U.S. computer manufacturers by $172 million a year, U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
Computer industry officials said the savings would come both through making imported parts less expensive and in reducing the cost of selling U.S. computer equipment abroad.
The current U.S. tariff is 4.3% on foreign-made computer parts. Japan imposes a tariff on computer-part imports ranging from 3.2% to 6%. The Canadian tariff is 3.9% for most computer parts and 6.8% for semiconductors.
The United States and Japan previously negotiated an elimination of tariffs on semiconductor trade between the two nations.
Refreshing Reminder
“At a time of rising international trade tensions, today’s agreement is a refreshing reminder that trade liberalization benefits industry, consumers and nations,” Yeutter said. At an agreement-signing ceremony, Yeutter called the pact “an example of how the leading trading nations of the world can work together.”
However, he added that major differences remain between the United States and Japan over low-cost Japanese semiconductor imports.
A Cabinet-level presidential trade “strike force,” of which Yeutter is a member, recently recommended that the Reagan Administration initiate an unfair trading complaint against Japan for allegedly “dumping” semiconductors on U.S. markets at prices below the cost of their production.
The agreement reached Friday on computer parts is “too small a piece” of the U.S.-Japan trade structure to have any bearing on the semiconductor case, Yeutter told reporters.
A Step Forward
Japan and Canada are the two largest trading partners of the United States. They also represent this nation’s two largest deficit accounts. The United States is expected to import nearly $50 billion more from Japan than it exports this year and $21 billion more from Canada than it exports.
Nobuo Matsunaga, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, called the computer-part pact “a step forward for the progress of our trade relations.”
And Canadian Ambassador Allan Gotlieb, who also signed the agreement, called the accord “a positive follow-up” to pledges to reduce barriers to trade made earlier in the year in a meeting between President Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
Yeutter said the United States agreed to eliminate tariffs on all computer parts except for those incorporating a cathode ray tube (similar to a TV picture tube), while Japan has agreed to eliminate tariffs not only on computer parts but on entire computer systems and “peripherals” such as printers.
