Article Abstract:
Germany, the Netherlands and Italy are proposing that the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (Cocom), which is responsible for trade restrictions against the Soviet Union and its allied countries, should relax those restrictions because the Cold War has ended. European telecommunications equipment manufacturers want to end the United States' power to veto sales of communications equipment so that modernization of the former Soviet Union's communications infrastructure can proceed. Eight other European nations are expected to support the proposal, but the US may seek to delay it. In related news, US government representatives are investigating a report that Carl Zeiss Jena, an East German company, has sold fiber-optic telecommunications cable to the Soviet Union. The US and Great Britain have tried to restrict such sales.
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Article Abstract:
The US and Japan are involved in a trade dispute involving supercomputers. The Japanese say the US has refused to consider complaints that the US market is closed to Japanese supercomputers. Meanwhile, Americans say the Japanese have failed to comply with terms of a 1990 trade agreement and have not opened their markets to American products. In Mar 1993, the US government and Cray Research Inc may challenge the Japanese concerning a contract with Japan's National Institute for Fusion Sciences. Cray lost the contract, but Cray claims that NEC, the winner, won by bidding on a 'paper' machine that existed only in blueprints. Cray Research Inc Chmn John A. Rollwagen says the supercomputer issue could lead to renewed trade tensions between the US and Japan. If this happens, cautions Rollwagen, both nations will be the losers.
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Article Abstract:
Eight representatives from the Soviet computer industry are invited to participate in an industry convention in the US to discuss the state of the industry in the Soviet Union and to observe the deal-making that goes on in the high-tech world. The Soviets also want to discuss possible joint ventures and other forms of cooperation with US companies, which could help bring the Soviet computer industry up to world standards. For their part, most US representatives feel that the Soviet market will be a lucrative one, but there are obstacles. Experts cite the absence of any internationally accepted copyright law and the lack of hard currency for purchases as major problems existing now.
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic: