Japanese companies also need to be alert to the charge of "sticking together" and not doing business with American suppliers.

Foster, with 3,300 employees, is the largest American supplier of home health-care equipment.

Traditionally, American suppliers have figured what it costs to produce a part.

Executives of American suppliers are left to wonder how the agreement will play out.

Yet British industry has sometimes had trouble matching the standard of American military suppliers in the past.

That led to five new semiconductor contracts with American suppliers.

The company orders directly from American suppliers of factory-outlet stores.

Toyota is lecturing its American suppliers, telling them to pay more attention to quality and drive their costs down.

More often than not, American suppliers of entertainment have been big beneficiaries.

"It's been fantastic for the American suppliers of programming."