Dr Tsugio Makimoto, former President of Hitachi Semiconductors and Senior Corporate Vice-President and CTO at Sony, the author of 'Makimoto's Wave', tells an amusing yarn about how the World Semiconductor Council got established.
When the 1986 US-Japan Semiconductor Agreement was due to expire in 1996, a new, fiercely fought, series of negotiations was entered into, ending with a meeting in Vancouver.
Makimoto headed up the Japanese delegation in Vancouver. The governments of the US and Japan were keen that the trade friction should be ended, and US President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto laid it down that agreement should be reached by the end of July.
"By July 31st no agreement had been reached and a delegate suggested: 'Let's stop our watches'," recalls Makimoto.
Eventually a deal was made and part of it was that a body to promote collaboration and worldwide tariff-free international trade in semiconductors should be set up.
This body was to be called the World Semiconductor Council (WSC).
The agreement was finally sealed on August 2nd.
"When the first meeting of the new World Semiconductor Council was held," recounts Makimoto, " the U.S Semiconductor Industry Association presented delegates with a T-Shirt printed with the statement that the creation of the World Semiconductor Council was agreed on July 33rd, 1996."
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