Dumping Charges Suspended in One Japanese Chip Case

The Commerce Department and Japanese makers of semiconductors reached a tentative agreement late Monday to suspend one computer-chip dumping case. However, the pact was initialed only and won’t be signed unless a comprehensive agreement on far-ranging semiconductor trade issues is reached, a Commerce spokeswoman said.

The action was taken “in order to preserve all options while intense negotiations continue,” Commerce’s Desiree Tucker said. “The initialed suspension agreement on EPROMs will only be signed in the context of an acceptable overall agreement.”

The negotiations between the two governments, which stretched through the weekend into early evening Monday, were expected to resume in Washington this morning. Industry officials said they expect a resolution no later than Wednesday, the deadline for a suspension notice to be filed in yet another case in which the Japanese are accused of dumping--selling below cost or cheaper than in home markets--semiconductors.

U.S. officials have used a double-barreled approach to the negotiations with the Japanese, linking three anti-dumping cases to an industry petition accusing the Japanese of unfair trading practices. That case, known as a 301 petition, seeks to halt dumping and provide U.S. companies access to Japan’s seemingly insatiable market for computer chips.

In Tokyo, Japanese government officials also announced the tentative agreement.

The proposed agreement would suspend a final ruling and permanent imposition of stiff tariffs on a type of semiconductor called EPROMs (or eraseable programmable read-only memory). That case, in which preliminary rulings found that Japanese manufacturers had dumped products here, was filed by three San Francisco Bay Area chip makers, National Semiconductor, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

Those companies echoed Commerce’s firm insistence that the settlement in the EPROM case was ultimately contingent on settling the larger issues.