U.S. ‘Optimistic’ Over Plan to Ban Dumping of Chips
As a round of talks on the U.S.-Japan semiconductor trade agreement concluded Wednesday, a U.S. Commerce Department official said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the dumping of computer chips in Southeast Asia will abate by year-end.
Officials of the two governments will meet in a special follow-up session in January to review progress in implementing the trade accord.
The talks completed Wednesday focused on U.S. concerns that Japanese semiconductor manufacturers have continued to dump, or sell at below market value, computer chips in Southeast Asian markets.
Greater Market Share
The trade agreement calls for an end to semiconductor dumping and for U.S. companies to gain a greater share of Japan’s chip market. It primarily covers memory chips, information storage devices that are widely used in computers and other electronic products.
The pact, reached in July, was hailed as a standard for U.S.-Japan trade relations and as an alternative to protective trade legislation in improving U.S. chip makers’ competitive position worldwide.
A Commerce Department statement said Wednesday that Gilbert Kaplan, deputy assistant secretary for import administration, “expressed cautious optimism that actions taken by the government of Japan to implement the agreement would successfully resolve the pre-consultation problems.”
Little Evidence
Although Japan’s trade ministry has urged Japanese chip makers to raise prices of the memory devices in such places as Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, most industry sources say there has been little evidence that prices have climbed above the below-cost levels that have prevailed in recent months. Those Southeast Asian markets are crucial to the pact as homes to thriving electronics businesses that use great quantities of the chips.
A spokeswoman for the Semiconductor Industry Assn., a San Jose-based trade group, said 30 days “should be sufficient” to see results from the Japanese government’s actions. The trade group has proposed government sanctions against Japanese chip makers that continue to violate the agreement.
