A new US pressure group – yet another – calling itself the Computer Systems Policy Project has been set up in Washington to lobby Congress on trade issues and to establish a national programme tackling the problem of competitiveness, especially with regard to Japan Inc. The group will have a yearly $500,000 budget, and is to model itself on the Semiconductor Industry Association, which it regards as a successful defender of chip manufacturers’ interests. However, the users and the semiconductor industry differ in the degree of hostility they feel towards Japan. The new group is attempting to balance the power of the manufacturers in political circles, and to see that component user sentiment is heeded when there is talk of trade sanctions. The founding members include IBM, Unisys Corp, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Co, Compaq Computer, and Tandem Computers. Also expected to join are Prime Computer, NCR and Apple Computer. IBM chairman John Akers, Hewlett-Packard president John Young, and Tandem Computers president James Treybig are awaiting response from the semiconductor user community, following a joint letter they sent to to US computer systems companies asking them to join and support the caucus.
