The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 9

Stocks BS Market report B7 Mutual funds B7 The Honolulu Advertiser Wednesday, March 23, 1988 B-5 Gold New York Spot U.S. threatens to file a complaint against Japanese beef, citrus quotas 4W 2( 500 no fl 11 i i I 20 I a It II 1 I It 11 Jan. Fab. Mar. Today's Briefing Combined Newt Service WASHINGTON Agriculture Secre tary Richard Lyng, trying to put some siz- zle in a trade dispute witn Japan, trotted out jumbo-sized charts yesterday snowing now Japanese lm-t pricing U.S.

beef and citrus I fT 5 products. And U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said yesterday that if Japan fails to lift the beef and cit ed U.S. beef and citrus imports to Japan is due to expire. Yet U.S.

officials remain openly unhappy that the Japanese government seems to be backtracking on an earlier understanding that Japan would fully open its markets when that agreement ends. "It's about to run out, on March 31, and at this point we still have not heard from the Japanese about their willingness to liberalize beef and citrus," Lyng said. "We would like very much for them to announce the removal of the import quotas on those items." But U.S. officials didn't sound optimistic. "There's certainly nothing at the moment that would indicate we're anywhere near a resolution," said Yeutter.

The trade representative said his office has alerted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the trade policing body in Geneva, that the United States will file a formal complaint in the first few days of April to seek formal resolution of the dispute. Resolution would take six to 12 months. Japan's beef and citrus quotas are incompatible with international trade rules, Yeut ter said. Acting on another U.S. complaint, the GATT recently ruled that Japan should lift its quotas on eight items, mostly processed foods, and compensate the United States for quotas on two other foods.

"We believe that the same finding would be made on both beef and citrus," Yeutter said. Lyng estimated that without quotas, beef exports to Japan would double in the next few years and citrus exports would show "a substantial increase." The U.S. currently sells roughly $700 million worth of American beef in Japan, by far the largest American customer. Americans export about $150 million of oranges, grapefruit and other citrus fruit to Japan. The import quota issue has been sensitive in Japan, where farm groups are a powerful force in the political structure.

Already, some Japanese farm groups have threatened retaliation against other U.S. farm goods if their country opens its markets to beef and citrus imports. Replied Lyng, "A nation with a $50 billion favorable trade balance with the United States last year is in no position to be instituting consumer embargoes against our products." to start the plant's Unit 2 reactor, shut down since August 1985 pending resolution of a technical problem involving resistor temperature detectors. The detectors are used to gauge the temperature of fluids in the pressurized reactor system. The NRC also gave the go-ahead to restart California's Rancho Seco nuclear plant, which has been shut down since a cool-down accident in December 1985.

Oil prices plummet Oil prices plummeted by as much as 80 cents a barrel on world markets after OPEC's president postponed a news conference at which he was expected to announce new measures to halt the recent price slide. OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman, who also is the Ni rus restrictions by March Lvn9 31, the United States will file an official trade complaint during the first week of April. In a show-and-tell session for reporters, Lyng noted that a pound of sirloin steak in" Washington cost $4.99. But in Tokyo, the same steak costs $20.56 a pound. "These are graphic examples of the kind of effect you get from having quotas that are smaller than the demand," Lyng said, stepping up his campaign to pressure the Japanese.

Next week, an agreement that has limit 1 Japanese hotel firm buys 44 condos Five insurers sued Eight states filed suits charging that four major U.S. insurance companies and Lloyd's of London manufactured a 1984-85 liability insurance crisis that forced small police forces to disband and threatened cancelation of San Francisco's Chinese New Year parade. Attorneys general in seven states filed suit in U.S. District Court in Northern California and a similar suit was filed in a Texas state court charging violation of state and federal anti-trust laws by collusion to restrict the availability of liability coverage used by most businesses, public agencies and non-profit groups. complaints charged the actions created a ripple effect in thousands of communities across the nation found themselves with skyrocketing insurance premiums or no protection at all.

investigation revealed the so-called liability insurance crisis of 1984 and 1985 was in great part created by the insurance industry itself," Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon charged iri one of a number of news conferences across the nation. Tin an elaborate conspiracy, these companies agreed to severely restrict the amount oC coverage available to consumers of commercial general liability policies," he said. Companies named in the 68j-page complaint include the Hartford Fire Insurance Allstate Insurance Aetna Casualty and Surety Co. and the Cigna Corp. Also named was Lloyd's of London, the internationally known firm which provides protection to the insurance companies themselves and thfc Insurance Services Office, a trade group.

"We consider the allegations unfounded and without merit," said ISO spokesman David Ostwald. Airline, union agree Northwest Airlines and the Teamsters union have reached a tentative contract agreement for 6,500 flight attendants, averting for now a stFike threatened to begin next week. Petails of the pact, which still must be ratified by the rank and file, were not disclosed. The settlement was announced at company quarters in suburban Minneapolis. Marvin Griswold, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 2707, said the union agreed to call off the strike Kawagichi said the manager of the units is being retained.

Otaka became one of the state's bigger hotel owners within two years of buying its first hotel here. In February 1985 it bought the 636-room Holiday Inn Waikiki for $50.3 million and followed that with the $2.5 million purchase of the Makanikai Hotel a month later. In 1986 it bought the 535-room Kona Surf Resort for $20.2 million and the Ke-auhou-Kona Golf Course. Its last major purchase came in October 1986 when it bought the Hawaiian Regent Hotel for $207.7 the purchase was made from the Smyth family of Santa Barbara, that also owns the land beneath the Otaka's Holiday Inn Waikiki hotel. "They mentioned the property was up for sale," Kawagichi said.

"We agreed to purchase it." He acknowledged that the acquisition marks the first time Otaka has bought a large number of condominium units in Hawaii, but said the company has no plans to acquire more. "We've never been in that kind of business." he said, explaining that condominium rentals are a departure from hotel operations, but close enough that Otaka feels comfortable. By Greg Wiles Aavertiiet Staff Writer Otaka Inc. has paid $5.9 million to obtain 44 units in the Fairway Villa condominium along with land underneath the Waikiki project. State Bureau of Conveyance records show that Otaka, one of the state's larger hotel companies, bought the units in February along with parking spaces and a commercial area in the building at 2345 Ala Wai Blvd.

Otaka paid $4 million for the units and $1.9 million for the 37,910 square feet beneath the 362-unit project Steve Kawagichi, Otaka president, said Lanai project worries environmentalists ter quality at Hulopoe is in itself one of the attractions of the area. "It would be terrible, if after all these years of trying to protect what we have there, to lose it because of development," she said. "We hope that this is not what Mr. (David) Murdock wants for Hulopoe." Murdock, chairman of Castle Cooke, has been pursuing an accelerated program of development on Lanai. Maui County planners said a special management area permit for the Hulopoe hotel will not be affected by the Environmental Center's letter.

bay, the letter said. Hulopoe was made a marine conservation district in an attempt to protect the quality of the water. Kumagai and Castle Cooke executive Robert Oda were on Maui yesterday to meet with county officials to discuss Harrison's concerns. Neither was available for comment after the meeting with the county. Martha Evans, of Lanaians for Sensible Growth, said she expects the company to respond to Harrison's comments.

"In the spirit of the agreement, we expect that they will follow through," she said. She pointed out that the wa gerian oil minister, called off the scheduled news briefing in Lagos a day after Saudi Arabia's King Fahd confirmed widespread reports his kingdom was selling its crude at a discount to European and Japanese buyers. Saudi Arabia is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' largest and most influential producer. "The Saudis are sending a very powerful signal that undermines official OPEC prices, which is probably contrary to what Lukman had originally planned to discuss at the news conference," said Alvin Silber, analyst at Brean, Murray, Boster Securities Inc. in New York.

"To avoid the appearance of that kind of contradiction within OPEC. Lukman may have thought better about holding the news conference and decided to try to understand better what the Saudis are up to," he said. Oil prices surged late last week on reports Lukman would disclose March 22 new steps by the 13-nation cartel to restore stability to the shaky oil market, battered by spreading OPEC discounts and rising non-OPEC production. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate the principal U.S. crude for April delivery fell 40 cents to $16.09 a barrel.

Campeau ups bid Campeau Corp. boosted its hostile takeover bid for Federated Department Stores Inc. to at least $6.44 billion, hiking the front end to $82 a share in a high-stakes attempt to outbid rival suitor R.H. Macy Co. The Canadian developer also proposed a two-step friendly deal for Cincinnati-based Federated, parent of Bloom-ingdale's and Abraham Straus, that would pay all stockholders about $73 a share.

Toronto-based Campeau extended its offer to midnight April 4, the same expiry as the Macy's bid. Campeau retained a key condition that it would not complete the deal unless Federated's "poison pill" takeover defense is killed. Federated, America's fifth-largest retailer, said its board would meet later this week and study the new bid if it is received. On March 15 Federated accepted a revised $6.2 billion bid by New York-based Macy's. A Macy's spokesman said the company would not comment but that the Campeau offer was not unexpected.

By Edwin Tanji Advertiser Maui County Bureau LANAI CITY The University of Hawaii Environmental Center has reported "serious concerns" that Castle Cooke plans to build a hotel at Hulopoe Bay on Lanai may degrade the pristine ocean resources of the bay. In a letter to environmental consultant James Kumagai, John Harrison of the Environmental Center listed concerns over potential for sewage getting into the bay, a lack of attention to "social impact" of the project and the legality of agreements on public access to the bay. The Environmental Center reviewed the hotel development proposals as a result of an agreement between Castle Cooke's Lanai Co. and Lanaians for Sensible Growth, a group of residents who challenged Lanai request for a permit for the project. The center's comments focused on plans for dealing with sewage produced at the 250-room hotel and from other developments planned as part of a 422-acre resort around Hulopoe and Manale bays.

Plans call for treated sewage to be used to irrigate the beach park at Hulopoe. The center said such use may lead to nutrient-rich effluent leaking into the ocean. There also was concern that heavy rains may lead to sewage and effluent running into the ocean. "We have, more acute concerns about the impending impacts of high-intensity human usage of the coastal environment. This subject has not been considered at all in any of the project documentation," Harrison's letter said.

Increased human use and infiltration of sewage or effluent could degrade the waters of the pending the outcome of the ratification vote, a process that will take about 30 days. ONE TIME SPECIAL PURCHASE! The union, which repre sents the flight attendants, had set a strike deadline for March 29. imm. laas S1249 nrnrr Terry Erskine, Northwest MlWWf vice president of law and la NATIONAL RATING "BEST BUY bor relations, said the company, will suspend the contract 1750 KALAKAUA AVE. 955-7911 it had imposed recently atter negotiations broke down.

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Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, fill fcin-hn'rr itlkmitm Bi'ihrftiiMifiT--' "il RICHARD L. HOKE a sleeping giant in the picturesque rolling hills of Tennessee: closed by safety concerns. fH Tf 'V-: Tl 'UJuH The commission voted 5-0 4 A "1 3 1 WATSdDM ATTORNEYS AT LAW 1 Improved print quality Higher reliability Enhanced paper-handling capabilities KALI WATSON Iri Hawaii IMAGE WRITER II $455 Union vote sought a. a i nptitinn to organize the Cable 25 Authorized Dealer Prices sood now through 33188 workers at KHBC-TV, an independent television station in Hilo, has been filed with Announce the relocation of their Law Offices (formerly at 333 Queen Street) to OCEAN VIEW CENTER 707 Richards Suite 526 Hi Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Professional Malpractice Drunk Driving Defense No charge cards on sale items, please. MicroAge' represented by Local 1260 or remain ununionized.

Local 1260 said the petition was supported by 30 percent or more of the about 20 employees it wants to represent. Besides running syndicated programming, KHBC does about 40 hours a week of local programming, according to William Evans, who purchased the station several years ago. 680 Ala Moana Blvd. Phone 524-6652 Next to Little George's Validated Parking in Front the: National Labor Relations Board. The International Brother-hnnri nf raprtrical Workers.

coAiPUTer stores Open Mon. thru Frl. 9.30 to 5:30 Saturdays 9:30 to 3:30 'The Solution Local 1260, has asked the NLRB to conduct an election in which employees will de rlMKtat Ifffr art te tft tv 531-5927 Eves. 263-4077 cide wneiner tney wisn iu ue.