The Nation : Toshiba Still Exports to U.S. Despite Ban

Toshiba Machine Co. has shipped millions of dollars in sophisticated machinery to the United States in the four months since President Reagan signed legislation banning the Japanese company’s imports to punish it for illegally supplying equipment that aided the Soviet military, business and government sources said. The shipments are still coming because the White House has not yet published regulations telling the Customs Service how to implement the ban, Administration officials said. An official of the Office of Management and Budget said all the regulations for the trade bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, will be published as an executive order at one time, probably in January. Toshiba Machine, meanwhile, has set up new facilities in Canada, and U.S. manufacturers of competing machinery are concerned that it may try to supply the U.S. market from north of the border after the ban goes into effect. “Nonsense,” replied Matthew J. Marks, a Washington lawyer whose firm represents Toshiba Machine. “Toshiba Machine is not that stupid. They made one bad mistake and they are not going to repeat it.”