Rather more on the ball than were their US counterparts when the US-Japan Semiconductor Trade Agreement was negotiated, European computer manufacturers are presenting a united front in bitterly opposing any agreement between the European Commission and Japan on floor prices for memory chips: Bull SA says it will have to transfer its manufacture from France to the Far East if artificially high prices are set, STC Plc says that the proposals will simply deliver massive windfall profits to Japanese chipmakers and represent a damaging new tax; the aim of the floor price is to featherbed emerging European memory chip manufacturers, presently principally Siemens AG and Philips NV.