Hopes are rising that agreement can be reached on a new US-Japan Semiconductor Trade Agreement: according to Reuter, Japan is now prepared to accept the setting of a 20% share of its market for foreign manufacturers as a target provided it is not required to guarantee it, if in return, the US agree to drop the 100% tariff it imposed on $165m of Japanese imports when President Reagan decided that Japan was not keeping to the original agreement; still a bone of contention is the way foreign market share is measured – Japan includes IBM Corp chip shipments to IBM Japan seems fair enough – and says foreign firms have 19% of the market already, the US excludes such intra-company trade and sees a 13% foreign share.
