Japan Pushing Purchases of U.S. Chips

Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry will ask 64 major Japanese consumers of semiconductors to increase their purchases of American-made chips this month in hopes of persuading the United States to lift its sanctions against Japan, a high-ranking ministry official said Thursday.

Shinji Fukukawa, vice minister of the ministry, commonly known as MITI, said the step was being taken following an agreement Wednesday between MITI Minister Hajime Tamura and U.S. Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter to compare April statistics with the goal of seeking “an early solution to the problem.” The comparison will be made in the middle of next month.

Fukukawa told reporters that semiconductor production cutbacks ordered by MITI were producing “results” in curbing sales of low-priced chips in third-country markets, but he indicated that extra purchases of American-made chips in Japan are needed.

Japanese analysts described MITI’s move as an attempt to pad the April statistics on American chip sales in Japan to bolster the case for withdrawal of the retaliatory 100% tariffs that President Reagan imposed on three Japanese electronics products last Friday.

Although agreeing with Tamura to “seek an early solution,” Yeutter said here Wednesday that “firm and continuing evidence that dumping in third-country markets has stopped and that access to the Japanese market has improved” would be needed if the sanctions are to be withdrawn.

Yeutter, meanwhile, met Thursday with Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and told him that recent trade disputes between the two nations, including the semiconductor imbroglio, had offered “a lesson to both nations,” according to a government official who was present.

The official, who asked not to be named, said Yeutter told Nakasone that his office was swamped with phone calls from congressmen urging exemptions for one product after another on a list the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office issued for consideration of punitive tariffs.

All of the congressmen who called had argued vigorously in favor of sanctions against Japan until the day before the list was announced, the official quoted Yeutter as telling Nakasone.

And American companies had deluged the congressmen with calls, informing them that they needed Japanese electronics goods as parts for products they produced, Yeutter reportedly said.