President Reagan said he hoped the United States could lift trade sanctions against Japan soon. But he said the United States would do what is necessary to see that other nations lived up to their trade agreements. In a speech prepared for delivery to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he said, “I hope that, before long, we can lift these (Japanese trade sanctions) and that this episode will be recorded as a small incident in the building of our relationship.

Long-term bank sources confirmed their banks have decided to leave the current 5.2 pct long-term prime rate unchanged. The current rate has been in effect since March 28. The bankers said the rate was unchanged because the falling dollar and the bond market rally made it difficult to clarify the current level of yen interest rates. There had earlier this week been expectations of a 0.2 point cut from today in response to the fall in the secondary market yield in five-year long-term bank debentures, but bankers said last night the rate would be unchanged.

Bangladesh is keeping its options open on whether to seek a penalty from Continental Grain Co of the United States for alleged breach of a wheat shipment contract, but is also asking the company to expedite shipment of the cargo, a senior Food Ministry official said. The official, who declined to be named, said the company under a deal agreed to ship 100,000 tonnes of wheat by April 7 and another 100,000 tonnes by April 16.

Taiwan’s unemployment rate fell to 2.03 pct of the labour force in March from 2.37 pct in February and 2.79 pct in March 1986, the government statistics department said. A department official said the decline was due to rising employment in the manufacturing sector, including textiles and footwear. The unemployed totalled 163,000 in March against 193,000 in February and 216,000 in March 1986. The labour force fell to 8.03 mln in March from 8.

West German banks face disruption from strike ballots and selective strikes after the breakdown of talks on wages and working hours, the German Employees Union, DAG, and the Commerce, Banking and Insurance Union, HBV, said. But the chairman of the bank employers’ federation, Horst Burgard, told reporters in Frankfurt he hoped the two sides would reach agreement after a pause for thought. DAG chief negotiator Gerhard Renner said the employers' offer to resume talks was farcical as long as they refused to remove the issue of flexible working hours from the talks.

Saudi Arabia will not seek to push OPEC oil prices above the current benchmark of 18 dlrs per barrel unless oil demand grows strongly, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) said. The Cyprus-based weekly newsletter quoted authoritative Saudi sources as saying the Kingdom’s oil price policy would not change “unless and until there is a strong revival in the growth of demand for oil.” MEES said this contradicted recent hints of new Saudi price hawkishness from U.

China’s final 1986 budget deficit was 7.05 billion yuan, down from 7.05 billion given in the March budget speech and against a surplus of 2.1 billion in 1985, Tian Yinong, Vice Minister of Finance, said. The New China News Agency quoted Tian as putting total 1986 state income at 226.03 billion yuan, up from 186.6 billion in 1985, and 1986 spending at 233.08 billion, up from 184.5 billion. He blamed the 1986 deficit on excess demand, a rapid increase in consumption funds and capital investment and losses by state firms.

The growing shift of low-skilled manufacturing jobs from the United States to Mexican border cities is not a threat to American employment because it will help create new markets for products, according to a study released today. Richard Bolin, director of the Flagstaff Institute of Arizona, which studies international trade issues, said the United States needs to encourage the expansion of manufacturing in developing countries so that those nations can become consumers of more U.

Effective extraction of the toxic metal cadmium from soil may at last be feasible using soybean plants, research in the Netherlands by a Belgian-based environment group shows. Cadmium, naturally drawn up by plants and passed on to consumers, has been shown to produce kidney damage and resulting calcium loss as well as causing high blood pressure and cancers, a spokesman for the Ecological Life and Cultivation (VELT) said. Three years of experiments by the organization showed soybean plants extracted up to 16 pct of soil-borne cadmium, which went into the leaves and not into the beans themselves.

Central bank governors from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet here this week for two separate conferences on finance and monetary problems, the Central Bank of Barbados said. The 24th session of Central Bank governors of the American continent opens today for two days and the central bank governors of Latin America and Spain will hold a separate conference from April 29-30. Representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international financial organisations will attend both conferences.