USX <X> CHAIRMAN CALLS FOR LOWER DOLLAR
USX Corp chairman David Roderick called
for a lower value for the U.S. dollar against other currencies
to help speed a correction in the U.S. trade deficit, which
last year reached 170 billion dlrs.
    In remarks prepared for a speech before the Economic Club
of Detroit, Roderick said, "There should be total resolve that
the dollar versus other major currencies, as well as the
currencies of other nations having a substantial trade surplus
with us, must continue to decline so that the correction in our
trade deficit starts on the road to recovery."
    Roderick said the U.S. should be understanding of the
"economic pain" our trading partners experience as a result of
a falling dollar.
    But, he added, "As painful as the correction may be to our
trading partners, it is less painful than leaving the problem
uncorrected because that would lead us into an inevitable,
lengthy and steep world recession."
    Roderick said between February 1985 and December 1986 the
dollar fell by more than 40 pct in real terms against major
industrial currencies and by 30 to 35 pct against a broader
group of currencies of nearly all developing nations.
    At the end of 1986, he said, the value of foreign assets in
the U.S. exceeded the value of U.S. assets abroad by 240
billion dlrs, compared to five years ago when the U.S. had a
surplus in assets of 141 billion. A company spokesman said the
data were provided by economic consultants to USX.
    The primary reason for the trade imbalance was the 70 pct
rise of the dollar between 1980 and 1985, although other
factors were involved, Roderick said. But it is wrong, he said,
"to attribute the massive trade deficit to a fundmental
deterioration of U.S. productivity or of American product
quality."
    These areas need to be improved but they are not the root
cause of the trade gap problem, Roderick said. He urged
American manufacturers to become more competitive so they can
compete in global markets.
    In the speech, the USX chairman also called for changes in
securities laws to curb what he called abuses by corporate
raiders and speculators.
    Among his proposals, which he presented to the Senate
Banking Committee in testimony last week, were a requirement
that raiders give 24-hour notice for every one pct of stock
they acquire in a company.
    Roderick proposed that tender offers must be made for all
cash to all stockholders on equal terms and that raiders be
required to have financing in place before a tender is made.
    Further, raiders should be required to make an all-cash
tender offer once they acquire 10 pct of a target company's
stock, he said. And payment of greenmail, or a preferential
price by a target company to buy back a raider's stake, should
be prohibited under the revised laws.
    Roderick said changes were necessary to curb abuses but
that he did not want laws that would hurt the financial markets
or discourage "fair price to all" takeovers.
 Reuter
