Mismanaged Trade?

This book traces the struggle between US and Japanese semiconductor producers from its origins in the 1950s to the novel experiment with “managed trade” embodied in the US-Japan Semiconductor Trade Arrangement of 1986. Flamm provides an analysis of this experiment and its consequences for discussion of patterns of competition within the semiconductor industry. Using new data, he argues that a fundamentally new trade regime for high-technology industries is need to escape from the present impasse. He lays out the alternatives, from laissez-faire to managed trade, and argues strongly for a new set of international ground rules to regulate acceptable behaviour by government and firms in high-tech industries.

Author Biography

“Kenneth Flamm is a senior fellow in Economic Studies and Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.”