Some $188m of the $300m punitive trade sanctions imposed by the US on Japanese goods over alleged non-compliance with the US Japan semiconductor accord are still in place and the US has come up with new proposals to encourage the Japanese to keep the side of the bargain that requires higher purchases of US chips: up to now the onus has been on the Big Six to buy more US parts – but they are all themselves chip manufacturers, albeit accounting for close to 50% of Japanese usage; another 53 companies account for most of the rest of the market and the US now wants Japan to get heavy with these 53 chip users.