U.S. MAY DROP TARIFFS IF JAPAN OPENS - YEUTTER

  The U.S. Is willing to drop tariffs on
  Japanese electronic imports if Japan shows it will abide by an
  agreemement opening its markets to American goods, U.S. Trade
  Representative Clayton Yeutter said in a TV interview.
      "But there has to be a clear indication that they are
  willing to act," he said.
      Yeutter said difficulties in the Japanese economy caused by
  the U.S. Tariffs and the yen's rise against the dollar are
  problems "they have brought on themselves."
      The dollar fell to 40-year lows against the yen today.
      "Certainly the movement of the yen is causing some economic
  turmoil in Japan," he said. "My only response is that we have
  gone through about five years with the dollar going in just the
  opposite direction. Although I can sympathise, it's occurred
  for only a few weeks or months in Japan."
      The tarriffs, announced on Friday by President Reagan, will
  affect about 300 million dlrs worth of products, only a tiny
  fraction of Japan's total exports to the U.S.
      Even so, Reagan's decision "doesn't give us any joy. We
  don't want to take retaliatory action here if we don't have to,"
  Yeutter said.
      Yeutter said the meetings scheduled next month in
  Washington between Reagan and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
  will include "some difficult items on the agenda."
      Japan has failed to implement two parts of a three-part
  semiconductor agreement, Yeutter said.
      Japan has stopped dumping chips in the U.S. But it has
  failed to open its domestic markets to U.S.-made chips and has
  failed to end predatory pricing in Third World countries,
  undercutting U.S. Products, he said.
  

