Suspicions of Unfair Competition Fuel US-Japan 'Chip Wars.'

Samuelson, Robert J., American Banker

AFTER STEEL AND autos, are "chips" next? Chips are the semiconductors that are the guts of computers and other electronic products. American chip makers say they're discriminated againist in Japan -- the Japanese firms buy only form each other. Such discrimination, the Americans argue, puts them at a global competitive disadvantage. The Japanese deny it.

The chip war exemplifies why our trade problems are so messy and emotional. They're a deadly combination of nationalism and ignorance. After examining mounds of documents and miles of semiconductor statistics, I can't tell who's right. And therein lies the lesson -- global competition is so disorienting and often enraging because the nature of the competition is so murky.

When two American companies compete, we're usually content to let the market decide who's better. Differences are thought to reflect superior or inferior business …

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Publication information: Article title: Suspicions of Unfair Competition Fuel US-Japan 'Chip Wars.'. Contributors: Samuelson, Robert J. - Author. Magazine title: American Banker. Volume: 150. Publication date: August 28, 1985. Page number: 4. © 2009 SourceMedia, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1985 Gale Group.

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