Some Japanese Goods May Get 100% Tariffs

By ART PINE

May 4, 1989 12 AM PT

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Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday published a list of more than 50 Japanese products that might be candidates for 100% tariffs later this year if the United States retaliates against Japan for failing to comply with a longstanding pact on trade in telecommunications equipment.

The list includes some $900 million worth of Japanese telecommunications products and $600 million worth of other Japanese-made goods, ranging from facsimile machines and cordless telephones to laser beams and specialized semiconductors.

The early notice, to be published in today’s Federal Register, is designed to warn Japan of the kinds of products that U.S. officials will consider when they make up the final list of items to be selected for retaliatory tariffs or other restrictions.

Sanctions Aren’t Certain

U.S. officials published a similar lengthy list of potential candidates for retaliation before imposing sanctions on Japan in 1987 for Japan’s alleged violation of a previous year’s accord on trade in semiconductors. The actual sanctions then amounted only to $300 million.

Trade officials said Wednesday that they had not yet estimated how much business U.S. exporters may have lost as a result of Japan’s failure to comply with the pact on telecommunications equipment--the figure on which the White House traditionally bases the size of any sanctions.

However, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office has scheduled a formal hearing on the issue for May 24. Officials conceded that the total is likely to be well below the $1.5 billion worth of products contained in Wednesday’s lists.

It still is not certain that the Administration will impose such sanctions. The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office announced Friday that it had decided to cite Japan formally for failure to live up to the telecommunications accord--a step required under the 1988 Trade Act.

But Japan still has up to six months to meet U.S. demands that it come into compliance with the agreement, and its trade officials are expected to launch negotiations soon to try to settle the issue before sanctions are imposed.

The U.S. charges of violations affect two specific products--U.S.-made cellular telephones and mobile car radios. In both cases, Washington alleges that Tokyo has restricted their use by refusing to license radio operations and allocate frequencies that the products could use in some sections of Japan.

Both products are major exports of Motorola Inc. of Schaumburg, Ill., which raised the issue initially that led to negotiation of the original telecommunications accord. Motorola officials have maintained that the restrictions bar them from the country’s most lucrative markets.

U.S. officials said that, just as in the case involving trade in semiconductors a few years ago, they must be careful to choose products for retaliation whose restriction will not hurt American producers.

For example, imposing high tariffs on Japanese-made laser products could impose a hardship on U.S. manufacturers of machine tools and medical equipment. The hearing scheduled for May 24 is intended to uncover some of those potential problems.

In a separate action Wednesday, the trade representative’s office announced that it had worked out an agreement with the European Community on an interim procedure for allowing some U.S.-produced beef into European markets, despite the EC’s ban on growth hormones.

The procedure provides for allowing U.S. producers who want to export hormone-free beef to Europe to sign a private contract with European officials under which they agree to meet European requirements. In return, the EC will arrange to monitor those cattle.

But U.S. officials cautioned that the accord will affect only a minuscule part of potential U.S. beef exports to Europe and will not resolve the larger dispute over whether the European ban on hormone-treated beef is justified.

As a result, Washington is maintaining the 100% tariffs, or extra duties, that the Administration imposed Jan. 1 on some $96 million in European meat shipments to the United States. The two sides also agreed to continue their negotiations indefinitely.

Besides the facsimile machines and cordless telephones, the list of potential candidates for retaliation in the Japanese telecommunications case included automatic data-processing machines, optical readers and chemicals such as aluminum nitride and silicides.

Phone Fees Possible

Also listed were industrial robots, carpet sweepers, ultrasonic welding machines, die-bonding assembling equipment, telephone switching equipment, microphones and loudspeakers, tape recorders, paging devices, radar detectors, burglar alarm parts, diodes, photovoltaic cells, wire, cable, station wagons, helicopters, propellers and rotors, optical fibers, photocopiers, oscilloscopes and microprocessors.

The list also raises the possibility of imposing fees on telecommunications services such as general telephone transmission services, submarine cable facilities, private radio services and electronic mail, code and voice mail.

TARGETS OF POSSIBLE RETALIATION

Beauty or makeup preparations

Sunscreen or suntan lotion

Manicure or pedicure lotions

Porcelain or china ceramics

Digital automatic data-processing machines

Magnetic or optical readers

Input or output units

Machines and mechanical appliances

Carpet sweepers

Machines for production of diodes, transistors and semiconductors

Electron-beam lithography apparatus