Word: pacts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...semiconductor industry got a measure of help last July when the Reagan Administration persuaded Japan to sign a five-year agreement to stop "dumping" chips at below-cost prices and to make its semiconductor market more open to foreign manufacturers. But the pact has stirred sharp controversy over its side effects. By forcing chip prices in the U.S. dramatically upward, critics say, the pact could severely harm the competitive ability of other high-tech industries whose products contain semiconductors...
Even so, U.S. manufacturers claim they could compete head to head with Japanese rivals if the foreigners stopped selling below cost. The U.S. chipmakers are somewhat optimistic about the new trade pact, under which the Department of Commerce is setting so-called fair market values for each Japanese company's chip exports to the U.S. To arrive at the fair market value, which is the minimum price at which the manufacturer is allowed to sell the semiconductor, the department tallies up an individual Japanese ( chipmaker's costs in making each product and adds a profit of 8%. The Government...
...addition to raising U.S. prices, the pact could help American chipmakers compete overseas, since it requires the Japanese government to prevent its chipmakers from selling semiconductors below cost in all other countries as well -- though that provision may be difficult to enforce. Perhaps more important, the Japanese government has agreed to help the U.S. and other countries boost their chip sales in Japan, which currently total about $750 million, by as much as $2 billion within five years. Says Thomas Kurlak, who follows the industry for Merrill Lynch: "It has stopped the Japanese ability to steamroll...
Still other critics of the pact think it could be detrimental to U.S. chipmakers in the long run by giving the Japanese a respite from cost cutting, during which they can pour their profits into research and development. In the meantime, other discounters, like the Koreans, are rushing into the U.S. market to fill the discount gap. "I'm meeting with a group from Seoul tomorrow. Their prices will be better," says Donald Kingsborough, chairman of a California toy company, Worlds of Wonder, that uses a high volume of chips in products like Teddy Ruxpin, the talking bear...
...Secretary of State is confident that, given its greater economic resources, NATO can create conventional forces superior to those of the Warsaw Pact. But such a view ignores the psychology, the long history, even the geography of the alliance. With economic strains, manpower shortages (particularly in West Germany) and no draft in the U.S., will the allies do in the '80s what they were unwilling to do in the prosperous '60s and early '70s? Can we risk our security on so flimsy a hope...