Chip Makers in U.S. Call for New Sanctions : Claim Dumping by Some Japanese Firms Overseas
The Semiconductor Industry Assn. on Tuesday called for sanctions against Japanese computer chip makers that it says are continuing to dump semiconductors in markets outside the United States.
The resolution adopted at the SIA’s board meeting in Newport Beach shows the trade group’s growing impatience with violations of the semiconductor trade agreement that was reached July 31. It also signals the group’s dissatisfaction with talks held in Tokyo last week, in which U.S. trade officials aired their concerns about enforcement of the agreement.
“If we were satisfied that dumping had stopped, that the talks last week had successfully handled the issue, then we would not have issued this,” SIA spokeswoman Sheila Sandow said.
Although U.S. officials have counseled patience, Sandow said that the U.S. industry needs immediate action and that sanctions and penalties would be incentives for the Japanese to end dumping “today rather than tomorrow.”
Seek Increasing Penalties
The resolution calls for identification of Japanese chip makers that have violated the pact and a system of penalties that increase for repeat offenses. It is to be sent to U.S. Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter and Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, whose offices negotiated the five-year trade agreement.
A spokesman said the Commerce Department had not received the resolution by late Tuesday and had no comment on it. However, in a statement regarding last week’s consultations with the Japanese, he said Japanese officials informed the Commerce Department on Monday that actions had been taken to implement provisions of the pact in regard to third-country dumping.
The Japanese also told the U.S. government, said Commerce Department spokesman Donald Creed, that it intended to take further steps to implement the agreement.
The five-year pact suspended two dumping cases and an unfair trade complaint against the Japanese in exchange for commitments by the Japanese to end dumping (or selling below fair market value) in the United States, encourage greater sales of U.S.-made chips in Japan and prevent chip dumping in other markets.
U.S. government officials acknowledge that third-country dumping continues to be problem, and the SIA said once again that it is fully supportive of Washington’s efforts to enforce the agreement. But the document is likely to ruffle feathers at the Commerce Department, which was displeased by an earlier SIA letter on the subject that, like this one, was disclosed publicly before Commerce Department officials had received a copy.
Also in the resolution, the SIA said that any actions against violators of the agreement should avoid “adverse effects on semiconductor users.” U.S. chip buyers have complained that while the chips they buy in the United States are priced according to Commerce Department-set “fair market values,” competitors in Japan, Europe and especially Southeast Asia are buying chips at below-cost prices.
