Japan Reported Ready to Move on Trade Issues : May Buy Supercomputers From U.S., Open Bidding on Construction Projects
The Japanese government is considering actions in three major areas of trade friction with the United States--including purchase of U.S.-made supercomputers--in its efforts to head off impending sanctions, Japanese newspapers reported Sunday.
The economic newspaper Nihon Keizai reported that Japan would buy an undetermined number of supercomputers from the United States for use by Japan’s government agencies and state universities.
And the Asahi Shimbun, a nationally circulated paper, said Tokyo would consider taking a “positive posture” toward U.S. firms participating in a major telecommunications project and a $10-billion airport construction project.
‘Certain to Ring Bells’
Those three areas, along with a long-standing semiconductor trade dispute, have been the major sources of trade friction with Japan in recent months. Although the issues are distinct from Japan’s failure to implement last year’s trade accord on semiconductors, these latest overtures from Japan “are certain to ring some bells in Washington,” said one U.S. electronics industry official.
President Reagan announced last Friday that the United States would slap $300-million worth of tariffs on imports of Japanese electronic goods. The sanctions, while reflecting growing rancor over a wide range of trade issues, are in retaliation for violations of provisions of the chip trade agreement that calls for an end of dumping of microchips in third-country markets and increased market access in Japan for U.S. chip makers.
U.S. observers said the reported moves are in keeping with Tokyo’s posture on the chip trade accord; that it has done its best to get its chip producers to stop dumping and to start buying U.S.-made semiconductors, and that for the most part dumping has already ended.
Also, observers believe that Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry is casting about for other solutions, to avoid applying more pressure on the country’s major chip makers--which at best have been reluctant supporters of the trade pact.
In an interview Sunday with ABC television, U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said: “Their government wants to live up to it. Their industries haven’t been doing it, and I think we’ll have a good settlement to spare both sides.”
But U.S. industry and congressional leaders said that it will take progress on compliance with the semiconductor agreement, and not on other areas, to resolve the dispute.
The tariffs are scheduled to take effect April 17, following a two-week comment period during which the Japanese government is expected to request high-level consultations.
George Scalise, vice president of Advanced Micro Devices and a spokesman for the Semiconductor Industry Assn. trade group, on Sunday said the industry would not be willing to exchange action on the chip pact for promises on other issues.
And Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.), who sponsored House resolutions last week calling for action in both the semiconductor and telecommunications trade disputes, noted that Japan has failed to live up to earlier commitments on supercomputers and the airport and telecommunications projects. “These are all related,” he said, “but I don’t believe if they are now willing to put these back on the table, it will be enough to satisfy Congress” to agree to having the sanctions be lifted.
