	gatt council defers decision on semiconductors the ruling gatt council deferred a decision on whether to set up a dispute panel on the basis of a european community complaint against the u s japanese agreement on exports of computer semiconductors david woods spokesman of the general agreement on tariffs and  gatt told a news briefing that the main parties would continue bilateral talks this was in the hope of resolving the row before the next council meeting on april the five year accord signed in july aims to protect the u s market from dumping of low price japanese microchips officially known as semiconductors the e c complained the accord breached gatt  rules by allowing tokyo to monitor prices allowing it to set minimum prices for japanese chips sold in third countries the nation community also charged the agreement gave u s producers preferential access to the japanese market woods said many nations hong kong canada switzerland singapore sweden malaysia and nigeria had supported the ec complaint during the heated council debate japan s delegate minoru endo and u s ambassador michael samuels replied in the debate that the e c charges were unfounded but they were willing to continue bilateral talks reuter 
