Question

Your firm manufactures optic transistors (OT), which are a component of personal computers. U.S. firms control 60 percent of the U.S. market for OTs. The market has done well overall, but recently, Japanese manufacturers of computers have increased their market share. Over the past two years, the Japanese have been exporting OTs to the United States in larger quantities. You have noticed that in the past two years your firm's share of the U.S. market for OTs has dropped from more than 25 percent to less than 20 percent. In addition, your firm's total sales have declined, its inventories are at their highest levels, and you have had to postpone hiring new employees. You have been informed by one of your better customers that it can purchase imported OTs for $0.95 each, ex factory, or $1.00, CIF American port. Your U.S. price has been $1.20, FOB your factory, with your costs at $0.90. The same OTs are sold to Japanese computer firms at $1.15. Furthermore, you have learned that the Japanese government assists OT manufacturers by rebating the value-added tax normally assessed on all products manufactured in Japan. To complicate your problems, you have experienced difficulty cracking export markets. You have noticed that countries in which personal computers are now being assembled, such as Brazil, Korea, and Taiwan, have restricted your firm's imports through a maze of complex regulations. These regulations require that you disclose important manufacturing and design techniques before import licenses will be granted. You are also concerned that your design patents will not be protected there, because Korean patent protection laws are not enforced. Korea has imposed quotas on OTs that make it virtually impossible to export to that market. What remedies are available to your firm under U.S. law? What factors (economic, political, or other) will affect the outcome of the case? Please be as specific as possible.

Answer 1

In manufacturing personal computers are manufactured in different sectors and it is also subdivided into and it has definately increase the market share which inturn is impacting and its potential economic faactors will have different dimensions in the economic secor.

An optical transistor, also known as an optical switch or a light valve, is a device that switches or amplifies optical signals. Light occurring on an optical transistor’s input changes the intensity of light emitted from the transistor’s output while output power is supplied by an additional optical source. Since the input signal intensity may be weaker than that of the source, an optical transistor amplifies the optical signal. The device is the optical analog of the electronic transistor that forms the basis of modern electronic devices. Optical transistors provide a means to control light using only light and has applications in optical computing and fiber-optic communication networks. Such technology has the potential to exceed the speed of electronics, while saving more power.

Companies in this industry produce desktop and portable personal computers (PCs). Major companies include Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. ... Related products such as servers and mainframes -- in addition to PCs -- are included in the more expansive Computer Manufacturing profile

There are different companies manufacturing personal computers are as follows

Apple Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

IBM.

Foxconn Technology Group.

HP Inc.

Lenovo.

Quanta Computer.

ASUSTeK.

Japan dominated world shipbuilding in the late 1980s, filling more than half of all orders worldwide. Its closest competitors were South Korea and Spain, with 9 percent and 5.2 percent of the market, respectively.The Japanese shipbuilding industry was hit by a lengthy recession from the late 1970s through most of the 1980s, which resulted in a drastic cutback in the use of facilities and in the work force, but there was a sharp revival in 1989. The industry was helped by a sudden rise in demand from other countries that needed to replace their aging fleets and from a sudden decline in the South Korean shipping industry. In 1988, Japanese shipbuilding firms received orders for 4.8 million gross tons of ships, but this figure grew to 7.1 million gross tons in 1989.The petrochemical industry experienced moderate growth in the late 1980s because of steady economic expansion. The highest growth came in the production of plastics, polystyrene, and polypropylene. Prices for petrochemicals remained high because of increased demand in the newly developing economies of Asia.Biotechnology also is used to enhance bacterial enzyme properties to further improve amino-acid fermentation technology, a field in which Japan is the world leader. The government cautions Japanese producers, however, against overoptimism regarding biotechnology and bioindustry. The research race both in Japan and abroad intensified in the 1980s, leading to patent disputes and forcing some companies to abandon research. Also, researchers began to realize that such drug development continually showed new complexities, requiring more technical breakthroughs than first imagined. Yet, despite these problems, research and development was still expected to be successful and to end in product commercialization in the mid-term.