ustxtxb_obs_1971_06_04_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

4s ockj% -e*Z 4*ritecA , -Itt” Meeting facilities for 15 to 450 persons. 4 separate meeting rooms plus mezzanine Plantation Room, above. 400 airconditioned rooms and suites. Coffee Shop. Dining Room. THE TEXAS STATE HOTEL for details 720 FANNIN AT RUSK Gen. Mgr. Write or call E. C. Preston, Velveeta in Rangoon By James Ridgeway Washington, D.C. The Indochinese war detracts attention from Nixon’s play for economic domination of Asia. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Peter G. Peterson, director of the President’s council on international economics policy, explained Nixon’s concern lest US corporations loose their grip on world trade. While Nixon believes in “open, peaceful, competition,” Peterson said, “he also believes we are going to move vigorously to promote our country’s economic interests around the world . . .” “It is not that we feel we must lead in everything,” Peterson explained. “However, unless we lead in important respects and continue to grow in world markets, we will not have the spirit, will or the resources to shape the kind of world we want to live in.” What does this mean? Business reports suggest how we are attempting to “shape” Asian markets: McDonald hamburgers recently enterd into a joint venture with Japanese firms to build hamburger chains across the nation. Burger Chef will soon open its first drive-in at Tokyo. Kentucky Fried Chicken, Howard Johnson, Dunkin’ Donuts, Collins Foods steakhouses and Standard Oil of NJ, all are working on restaurant or carry-Out food chain plans for Japan. They decided to plunge in after Coca Cola outstripped all Japanese companies in profits. Other companies will push their food products in Japan. Sunshine Biscuits will sell its cookies. Kraft hopes for big success with Velveeta “American” cheese. Ralston Purina and Carnation are pushing dog and cat food. Borden will sell peanuts, popcorn and marshmellows. Wrigley’s gum, which accounts for 60% of all chewing gum in the world, is eagerly eyeing the Japanese gum business, where it hopes to beat out local companies. Hard Times IBM, which controls 70% of the world computer business, is put out because . the Japanese haven’t let them in until recently. IBM wants to stop the Japanese computer industry, partly by entering the country and competing directly, but probably more important, by buying into Japanese computer companies. Through its world-wide control of patents IBM has won Commerce Department support in its fight to stop the Japanese from endangering its share of the world computer business. The company reasons if the Japanese are not stopped in their homeland, they may attack the US and hurt the computer business for IBM here. US lumber companies, led by Georgia-Pacific and Wyerhauser are locked in competition with Japanese firms to see who can cut down most trees in the hardwood forests of Malaysia, Timber is Malaysia’s third most important export. Sixty percent of it comes from North Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak. While Malaysia threatens to nationalise some timber operations, profits are still high over the short term. Weyerhauser’s Malaysian subsidiary reportedly showed profits of 30% last year. THE BIGGEST new forestry project is the Jengka Triangle scheme. The plan calls for clearing 93,000 acres of dense forest near the Malaysian-Thai border where Communist guerrilas operate. It is promoted and financed by the World Bank which already has spent $21 million. Jengka Triangle is, on the one hand, a thinly disguised pacification measure. Cutting the timber makes it possible to build roads for the military. Settlements will be established where the population can be ‘controlled. In addition, pacification goes hand in hand with profits for foreign capital. All the forest products are scheduled for export. US and Canadian lumber companies will cut the logs, and a major part of the financing will be assumed by the Pacific National Bank of Los Angeles. As usual, the drawing card for foreign businessmen is cheap labor. Not only is there timber, but plans call for creating rubber plantations. People will be paid a daily wage if they live in the new pacification settlements. That’s supposed to be a lure to stay there. Rubber tappers get 12 cents an hour, part of which has to be kicked back to those who get them the job. Conservation Note: “Vancouver CP The possiblity that a conspiracy against enterprise is behind opposition to the Alaska oil pipeline was suggested Thursday by Thomas Kelly, an earth science consultant from Anchorage, Alaska. “Mr. Kelly told the Pacific Northwest Trade Association that all wealth stems from productivity, ‘and if productivity can be squelched, then the American system is very vulnerable to collapse . . . ‘ He said that after observing the direction that economic progress is taking in Alaska, `which is in reverse gear,’ he perceived `more than altruism in wanting to protect Alaska’s natural environment.’ “The economic viability of the United States could be destroyed under the guise of protecting the environment, by stopping pipelines, pulp mills, mining and other industrial activities, he said.” June 4, 1971 13 ATHENA Leo Nitch, Director MONTESSORI SCHOOL All or Half Day Ages 2-10 SUMMER PROGRAM 7500 Woodrow 454-4239 MEET in downtown HOUSTON, DETROIT is anxious to get a firm footing in Asia. The big automakers base their Pacific Basin operations in safe nations Australia and South Africa, then set up parts factories in countries where labor is cheap, \(i.e. GM has factories at buy into Japanese auto companies. Detroit plans to build inexpensive cars $800 each to sell in Indonesia. Last year Henry Ford II summed up his impressions after a trip, “In South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia we see promising markets,” he said, “and we see an attractive supply of cheap labor.”