| One aspect of the US relationship with Japan is the effort of US trade
negotiators to get Japanese agreement to opening their markets and
lowering trade barriers. One of the techniques has come to be known as
'managed trade'; where specific targets are set and progress measured
on achieving them. Probably the most well known was the agreement that
Japanese manufactirers would be using at least 20% foreign
semiconductors by 1992. The target was reached, just barely; but we
hear little about how that level has changed, since. The following
article discusses the further inroads into the market enjoyed by
American semiconductor manufacturers.
As a free trader, I am opposed both to the trade barriers that prevent
free and open competition in the Japanese market, and the negotiation
of quotas and other implements of 'managed trade'; even though, in this
case, the quota seems to have enabled a foothold and permitted US
manufactirers to prove their wares worthy, leading to further trade.
I am willing to consider this as an unworthy manipulation of markets
that luckily turned out right. I don't see it as further justification
for more agreements of 'managed trade.'
DougO
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Foreign chip share tops 20%
-- Inroads: Semiconductor trade agreement called key to boosting market
in Japan.
By Dean Takahashi
Mercury News Staff Writer
The world's semiconductor industry continues to make inroads into
Japan's economy.
For the fourth consecutive quarter, foreign semiconductor companies
remained above the widely watched 20 percent threshold of the Japanese
chip market, according to data released Thursday by the Semiconductor
Industry Association.
Foreign chip companies reached a record 23.2 percent market share in
Japan in the third quarter of 1994, said the SIA, the chip industry's
trade group, based in San Jose.
Andrew Procassini, outgoing SIA president, said the U.S.-Japan
Semiconductor Trade Agreements have been key to increasing the market
share above 20 percent, a figure that was established as a goal in the
1991 agreement. Foreign share has grown from 8.5 percent since 1986,
when the first trade agreement was signed in an effort to open Japan's
closed electronics market.
``Not only has the Japanese market become more competitive, but
cooperation is replacing confrontation on the question of market
access, and Japanese chip users are forming closer business relations
with U.S. suppliers,'' Procassini said.
Toori Sato, chairman of a similar trade group in Japan, repeated
earlier statements that the strong market share shows that foreign
chips are an indispensable part of the Japanese market.
Foreigners made the gains in the context of a boom year for
semiconductors when overall growth is expected to be 29 percent. That
growth is expected to slow to 14.7 percent in 1995. By comparison, the
Japanese chip market is expected to grow 22 percent to $29 billion in
1994 and 12 percent to $32.5 billion in 1995.
The SIA also credited industry and government campaigns to design
foreign chips into Japanese telecommunications, auto and video-game
products. It also said that Japanese firms are using more foreign chips
in digital consumer electronics devices. The digital chips are an area
where U.S. companies are particularly strong.
Japan is also shifting more of its low-end production offshore to other
Asian countries. Thus, even in cases where a company based in Japan
shifts manufacturing to an offshore subsidiary, the change is reflected
as an increase in foreign market share, said Daryl Hatano, an SIA vice
president.
The figures don't show which foreigners are gaining in Japan. Besides
U.S. firms, which have heavily increased their marketing efforts in
Japan in recent years, South Korean memory chip makers also have made
gains. Samsung Electronics Corp., which hopes to move from the world's
seventh-largest chip maker to sixth this year, says Japan is its
fastest-growing market.
LSI Logic Corp. in Milpitas probably would be part of any U.S. gains in
the fourth quarter. The company makes a customized processor for
Sony's new Playstation video-game system that was launched Dec. 2 in
Japan. Sony said it sold 100,000 systems in its first day and expects
to sell 1 million in its first six months.
Published 12/16/94 in the San Jose Mercury News.
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| Jesse Helms, in a speech in Miami on Monday, "...compared Canada and other
countries maintaining ties to Communist Cuba with those that appeased Adolf
Hitler before the Second World War.
'I think this excessive language is unnecessary, Mr. [Canadian Foreign Affairs
Minister] Ouellet said. Canada has maintained diplomatic relations with
Cuba...over the years. We feel the embargo is not helping the populations who
are suffering. We think that we have to look forward.'
Mr. Helms wants to tighten the current U.S. embargo against Cuba. His bill
would deny Canadian executives entry to the United States if they own or rent
property in Cuba that once belonged to U.S. citizens.
The bill would also ban imports of sugar, molasses and syrup from countries,
including Canada, that import sugar from Cuba.
Ottawa believes trading with Cuba is a legitimate way of fostering democracy
and alleviating the poverty and misery the U.S. embargo is causing, Mr. Ouellet
said.
Ottawa says the Helms bill violates international trade agreements, including
the North American free-trade agreement."
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