U.S. may Tell Japan Sanctions can end - ny Times

President Reagan is expected to tell Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone this week that the U.S. May be able to lift trade sanctions against Japan by the end of June, the New York Times said.

The newspaper, quoting administration officials, said that under such a scenario the President would announce just before the June 8-10 economic summit meeting in Venice that he hoped to lift the restrictions on electronics imports by the end of the month. Japan, for its part, would have to show that it had stopped underpricing semiconductors and had widened access in Japan for U.S. Chip producers.

The U.S. Administration imposed 100 pct tariffs on 300 mln dlrs worth of Japanese color television sets, motorised tools and personal computers on April 17.

Japanese officials have said Nakasone’s main demand when he arrives for talks with Reagan on Wednesday would be the immediate lifting of the tariffs.

But with Congress planning further trade reprisals against Japanese trade policies, the end-of-June timeframe is seen as the best Reagan can offer, the Times said. It said some verbal formulation was expected to be found in a communique that would allow Nakasone to claim at least a modest victory.