ABSTRACT
The September 1986 semiconductor trade agreement was the most significant precedent in the rise of a results-oriented market access policy towards Japan and arguably the most controversial US trade policy action of the 1980s. In particular, a secret numerical target set at 20 per cent of Japan’s semiconductor market was a dramatic departure from traditional process-oriented market access demands by the United States. President Reagan’s March 1987 decision to impose punitive trade sanctions against Japan for allegedly violating the agreement – the first such sanctions since the Second World War – demonstrated the US government’s new policy purpose to secure concrete results in sectoral agreements with Japan.
