The US Semiconductor Industry Association is quietly congratulating itself on the clause in the 1986 US-Japan chip trade agreement, which committed the Japanese side to a target of 20% of its local market for foreign-made chips: the Japanese privately agree that foreign market share would not have reached its 13.1% – Japan counts differently and says 17.9% – today without the agreement, but while US lobbiests are demanding a renewal of the agreement when it expires at midsummer, the Japanese are dead against an extension, so it looks like another year of tough talking.
