FIRMS ASK EXEMPTIONS FROM JAPANESE TARIFFS
Nearly 50 manufacturers and trade
groups asked the Reagan Administration for exclusions from the
tariffs it is to impose on Japanese exports Friday.
    Several police agencies also told a special screening panel
they wanted a Japanese-made fingerprinting system to be
excluded because it was vital for crime-fighting.
    Another 25 firms are to testify tomorrow.
    President Reagan announced the tariffs on March 27 to
retaliate for Japan's failure to honor an agreement to stop
dumping semiconductors in world markets outside the United
States at below cost and to open its own market to U.S. goods.
    U.S. semiconductor makers had complained they were being
injured by Japan's unfair trade practices.
    The tariffs of 100 pct - up from about five pct - are to be
applied to 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese exports including
power tools, television sets, computer parts and audio
equipment, in addition to the fingerprinting equipment.
    Reagan issued a list of several dozen products that could
be subject to the tariffs, and businessmen, lobbyists and
others asked for the exclusions in the two days of public
testimony that began today at the Commerce Department.
    He said "action should be taken in such a manner that
efforts to help the semiconductor industry do not inflict
extensive economic damage on the highly successful information
technology industry."
    A spokesman for Amdahl Corp <AMH>, a computer maker, said
it would be hit hard by tariffs on Fujitsu Ltd equipment
because Fujitsu was its only supplier of key electronic
components.
    Makita U.S.A., Inc, a maker of hand-held electric power
tools, said if tariffs were imposed on its goods it would have
to close its U.S. manufacturing operation in Buford, Ga., and
layoff its entire U.S. workforce of 600 people.
    The U.S. Trade Representative's Office, which is conducting
the hearings, said the products to be assessed the higher
tariffs will be made public on Thursday or Friday.
    It said it would base its judgment on the impact of the
tariffs on the companies hit as well as on the buying public.
    Some of the tariffs would double the price of imports.
    Law officers from California, Illinois, Alaska and
elsewhere said they relied on NEC Corp of Japan's advanced
fingerprinting system and asked it be exempt from the new
tariffs.
    Fred Wynbrandt, representing the California attorney
general's office, said the tariffs would double California
state and local costs for fingerprinting operations.
    Many of those testifying backed the idea of retaliatory
tariffs but not on some goods that would hit their business.
    Vico Henriques, president of the Computer and Business
Equipment Manufacturers Association, called for exemptions for
components that U.S. firms bought in Japan and for goods made
in Japan under a U.S. license or by a joint venture.
 more
