COMPUTERS: Local Product Makes Good

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No Japanese electronics manufacturer in recent memory has put its cherished brand name on a U.S. company's product. But Fort Worth's Tandy Corp., which makes Radio Shack products, said last week it has struck a breakthrough deal to supply personal computers to Japan's Matsushita Electric. The giant company will sell the computers, priced from $999 to $5,299, in the U.S. under its Panasonic label. Tandy chairman John Roach touted the event last week as a symbol of resurgent U.S. competitiveness. Said he: "It's a sign of the times that an American manufacturer is in this position."

For Tandy, the deal is recognition that its IBM-compatible machines, which command an estimated 23% of the American market for PCs, are considered among the industry's most reliable and user-friendly. And the arrangement will provide a regained U.S. foothold for Matsushita, which had pulled its made-in- Japan computers from the American market in April 1987 because Washington had imposed tariffs on some kinds of imported PCs. Matsushita hopes eventually to market Tandy's computers overseas as well.