The European Community, whose Common Agriculture Policy keeps food prices high, and which has failed to persuade monopoly European airlines to reduce air fares that border on the racketeering, has now succeeded in ensuring that at times of memory chip gluts, European manufacturers that use chips in their products will not be able to buy the things at the best prices available to competitors in other parts of the world, but instead will have to bankroll manufacturers in Japan: the Commission has coerced 11 Japanese manufacturers – Fujitsu Ltd, Hitachi Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, NEC Corp, Toshiba Corp, Texas Instruments Japan, Matsushita Electric Works Ltd, Sharp Corp, Sanyo Denki Co, Minebea Co and Oki Electric Industry Co to set floor prices for chips they export to Europe; the prices are between 8% and 10% above the average cost of production, weighted for each company’s output; the agreements will be good for five years, and so long as the Japanese makers keep prices above the floor, they will face no dumping duties.
