HAVE JAPANESE COMPANIES COLLUDED AGAINST U.S. SALMON PRODUCERS?

1993 U.S FISHERMAN/JAPANESE RETAIL PRICE DIFFERENTIAL

Adjusted U.S. fisherman price ............$0.77/lb
Tokyo Central Market wholesale price..... $2.94 /lb.
Avg. retail price 15 cities...............$ 8.76/lb.*
Source: SMIS

JAPANESE RETAIL PRICE DIFFERENTIAL WITH ALASKA FISHERMAN PRICE = 1,138%

*The average retail price for sockeye in July 1993 was actually $11.68/lb, but SMIS says the price needed to be adjusted downward by 25% ($11.68 x 0.75 = $8.76) to account for processing and to maintain a uniform comparison of prices.

This gap and the lack of effect of the dollar on salmon prices has helped stir criticism that Japanese buyers are taking the bulk of the profits out of the United States and there is criticism that anti-competitive practices block U.S. access to Japanese markets. While Japan has eliminated many legal and government-sponsored barriers, critics claim they have replaced them with anti-competitive practices by Japanese companies through industry groups known as keiretsu. This is the same problem faced by U.S. semiconductor companies, who produced a competitive product during the 1980s, but saw their market share consistently kept at about a 10% share of the Japanese market year after year. U.S. companies blamed collusive buying practices by Japanese electronics companies. This practice changed only after U.S. government intervention and the imposition of trade sanctions. However, anti-trust practices that may be illegal in the United States are not necessarily illegal in Japan where cooperative business and government practices are more common. In fact, the new free trade agreement negotiated under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which calls for the elimination of tariffs and legal barriers to trade, does not prohibit barriers based on private anti-competitive practices: therefore Japanese anti-competitive practices are legal under the GATT.

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