SONY CHAIRMAN PLAYS DOWN TRADE CONFLICT
Sony Corp <SNE.T> chairman Akio
Morita played down the U.S.-Japanese trade conflict, saying
that direct investment abroad was the most effective way to
reduce Japan's trade surplus.
    Morita was speaking at the official opening of a 100
million franc (16.4 million dollars) compact disc player
factory in eastern France.
    He said trade friction between the U.S. And Japan over
high-technology was a very complicated and delicate issue but
that Sony intended to invest directly throughout the world.
    Referring to the European Community's stance against
turnkey plants, he said: "I know Brussels is not very favourable
to these so-called new Japanese 'screwdriver factories', but in
Sony's case our policy is quite different."
    The Colmar plant, Sony's third in France, would eventually
use local components and be a purely French factory, he said.
     Sony France SA was established in 1973. Its 1986 sales
were two billion francs (327 mln dlrs) and the company says it
expects sales of 2.7 billion francs (443 mln dlrs) in 1987.
Sony's other two French plants, in the south west of the
country, export over 80 per cent of their production.
    Company officials say that production from Sony's European
factories currently accounts for over 30 per cent of the
group's European sales and they expect this to increase. In
1986 over 20 per cent of Sony's eight billion dollar worldwide
sales were made in Europe.
    At the beginning of 1987, Sony employed about 1,100 people
in Europe. The group plans to open a compact disc software
factory in Austria this summer and an audio cassette plant in
Italy next year.
 Reuter
