Japanese imports of American telecommunications equipment dropped sharply last year, to $555 million from $699 million in 1991.

French imports were off 19 percent in 1990, dropping in one year from 7.5 million cases to 6.1 million.

At the same time, imports of machinery and equipment dropped from 41 percent to 5 percent of the total.

It was the first time since 1991 that exports rose and imports dropped in the same quarter.

Total exports increased $1.9 billion and imports dropped $2 billion.

In 1807 imports dropped by more than half and some products became much more expensive or unobtainable.

Exports rose 2.5pc to €90.7bn during the month, adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors, while imports dropped 0.4pc to €75.7bn.

In May, imports of Japanese cars dropped by $302 million from the previous month.

By January 1973, those imports had dropped to 30,000 tons per month.

But by 1989, imports had dropped to 4.3 million, while domestic makers sold 32.2 million.