THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
and demand in Italy is about 8000 metric tons. In Italy, ANIC, chemical arm of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, plans to operate a 35,000 metric-ton-per-year polyisoprene plant at Ravenna, southern Italy, by early 1972. ANIC will also produce isoprene at Ravenna and will use the Snam Progetti process to polymerize the monomer. Recently, Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced plans to operate a 30,000 metric-ton-per-year polyisoprene plant in Japan, by early 1972. Japan Polyisoprene Co., a joint venture of Goodyear, Japan Synthetic Rubber Co., and Bridgestone Tire Co., will operate the plant which will use the Goodyear polymerization process (C&EN, Sept. 7, page 23 ). Most of the polyisoprene produced in Japan will be exported, and Goodyear might sell in France some 15,000 metric tons of Japanesemade polyisoprene, a Goodyear spokesman tells C&EN.
TRADE:
Another Go Round One of the better parlor games played by some people in Washington these days consists of guessing what's going to happen to the trade bill now that the U.S. and Japan have agreed to a new round of negotiations. Negotiations that may well lead to an agreement to limit textile imports—possibly even before Congress returns in about two weeks. President Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Sato disclosed 10 days ago that the U.S. and Japan would give
Presidential assistant Flanigan Would head U.S. delegation 12 C&EN NOV. 2, 1970
negotiations another go—but with new negotiators. Peter Flanigan, a Presidential assistant, would head the U.S. delegation and Japan's new ambassador to the U.S. Nobuhiko Ushiba would head the Japanese delegation. Mr. Flanigan replaces Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans, who for more than 18 months doggedly tried to get an agreement. Mr. Stans will remain on the U.S. negotiating team, however. While Mr. Nixon and Mr. Sato were agreeing to the new talks, president Kogoro Uemura of Japan's prestigious Keidanren (Federation of Economic Organizations) was also in the U.S., making private efforts to untangle the problem at his government's request. Back in Tokyo, Mr. Uemura finds himself in the role of middleman between government and textile industry, adding the weight of Japan's number one business and industrial association to the government's attempt to talk Japanese textile makers into a compromise. Mr. Uemura is expected to confer this week with leaders of the Japan Chemical Fibers Association, who will then decide whether and how much to change their stated policy of opposing restrictions on members' exports to the U.S. in the absence of proved injury to the U.S. textile industry. Association leaders expect talks to follow with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ( M I T I ) . Tokyo plainly hopes to bring the Japanese textile industry around to a compromise. The government can count on added support from other sectors of Japanese industry, following the recent rash of U.S. antidumping actions against Japanese television sets and other goods. It's widely believed in Japan that harmony restored in textiles would cause the dumping complaints to vanish. Japanese government persuasion is often sufficient in itself to bring company plans into line with national policy. But on the question of accepting new restraints on exports, the textile industry has proved atypically stubborn—a protruding nail, contrary to the Japanese proverb, that won't be hammered down. During the earlier negotiations it threatened legal action against any concession by the Japanese government to which the industry did not agree. There is little indication that this position has changed. Nor is the value of mediation by Keidanren's Uemuro certain. The textile companies have repeatedly objected to becoming the scapegoat for all Japanese industry in patching up relations with the U.S. "Our talks with MITI," one association official predicted to C&EN in Tokyo, "will be long and difficult." European Economic Community officials, meanwhile, besides issuing om-
inous warnings of a trade war if the trade bill is passed, now comment that they would be willing to possibly sop up some of the textile sales Japan would lose by voluntarily limiting exports to the U.S. Earlier, EEC officials were complaining that Japan would attempt to dump the textiles on the European market. Chances are pretty good, industry sources say, that an agreement—at least in principle—will be negotiated before Congress returns or, at the latest, before the Senate votes on some form of a trade bill. Just before Congress recessed for the campaign, the Senate Finance Committee held two days of hearings and voted nine to three to tack onto the social security bill the House version of the trade bill sans provisions calling for repeal of the American Selling Price and for setting up the Domestic International Sales Corporation (C&EN, Oct. 19, page 23). Sen. Ernest Holfings (D.-S.C.) comments that if the negotiations don't lead to a settlement that's to his liking or if the Finance Committee fails to amend the social security bill, then he'll propose from the Senate floor tacking the House trade bill onto social security as a rider. The House, meanwhile, will debate the Ways and Means Committee trade bill for eight hours on Nov. 18 and will vote on the measure the next day ( C&EN, Aug. 24, page 22 ). If there's no negotiated settlement prior to the vote, House passage of the bill seems certain. If there is an agreement, then House passage is far less certain. The U.S. textile industry, however, is adamant. The American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI), for instance, has sent a telegram to members of Congress calling for prompt enactment of the trade bill. The Administration probably couldn't be happier about the turn of events and its set of options. If a voluntary agreement is reached, for instance, then Mr. Nixon will drop his "reluctant" support of textile quota legislation. If Congress persists and passes a trade bill even though a negotiated agreement is reached, Mr. Nixon can veto the measure—which he has threatened and which the lameduck Congress wouldn't overridewithout making the textile industry too unhappy. In either event, he will have fulfilled a 1968 campaign promise to get curbs on foreign textile imports and might even get a rousing cheer from free trade advocates. Even if there is no voluntary agreement, and if Congress doesn't pass a trade bill, Mr. Nixon can still say he tried and at the same time charge Congress with being derelict on the matter.
