Business Notes TRADE

First the U.S. hectored Japan, then West Germany, for shipping too many exports to the U.S. Now the Reagan Administration is taking aim at new culprits: a group of fast-growing Asian economies. The "Four Tigers," as South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are known, posted a $38.4 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year, up more than 20% from 1986. To narrow ( the gap, U.S. officials have tried, with little success, to persuade the four to strengthen their currencies relative to the U.S. dollar, so that their exports would no longer be such bargains to U.S. consumers. Last week the President retaliated by eliminating the countries' special trade privileges, which had allowed them to import many products into the U.S. duty-free. But the Tigers still have a one-year reprieve before the policy takes effect.