U.S., Japan Negotiate on Chip ‘Dumping’
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TOKYO — Japan and the United States--seeking to resolve unfair trade practice charges against Japanese semiconductor makers--were far apart Wednesday on an agreement, but both sides agreed to continue negotiations, government officials said.
The officials of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said the agreement on new talks was reached at a subcabinet-level meeting.
Both sides agreed that an early settlement had to be reached on three main issues--opening the Japanese market to American semiconductor manufacturers, pricing problems and establishment of long-term cooperative relations between the Japanese and American semiconductor industries, they said.
“We believe both sides will try to concentrate their discussions on the three main problems in their next session,” the spokesman said.
The U.S. delegation expressed hope that the issue will be solved before Christmas, the officials said.
Wednesday’s meeting grew out of U.S. allegations that the Japanese market was closed to American manufacturers and that Japanese chip makers employ unfair trade practices and “dump”--or sell their products at below cost--to boost sales.
The allegations have been denied by both the Japanese government and the Japanese semiconductor industry.
Japanese news reports earlier said the government would offer a minimum price system primarily aimed at preventing Japanese semiconductor manufacturers from excessive price cutting, which has brought the price of some DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips to below $1.97.
The discussions on the semiconductor issue followed a one-day session Tuesday involving U.S. and Japanese delegations in Tokyo in the market-oriented, sector-selective negotiations, designed to open Japanese markets to U.S. goods in selected industries.
The date and place of the next meeting will be set through diplomatic channels, the officials said.
The U.S. panel was led by Deputy Trade Representative Michael Smith. The Japanese delegation was headed by Kazuo Wakasugi, vice international trade and industry minister for international affairs.
