Business Notes TRADE

In handling trade disputes with Japan, the Reagan Administration has employed a simple strategy: reward good behavior and punish bad. Last week the White House did both. The President announced a finding that Japan was no longer "dumping" semiconductor chips on world markets at prices lower than production costs. For that reason, he lifted tariffs on an estimated $84 million worth of imports of several Japanese electronic products. Reagan imposed the sanctions last April after the Japanese were found to have violated a 1986 agreement not to dump chips. But the White House left in place restrictions on $164 million worth of Japanese imports because of Tokyo's continued failure to keep another part of the agreement: a pledge to open up its home market to more American-made chips.