U.S. COMMERCE'S ORTNER SAYS YEN UNDERVALUED Commerce Dept. undersecretary of economic affairs Robert Ortner said that he believed the dollar at current levels was fairly priced against most European currencies. In a wide ranging address sponsored by the Export-Import Bank, Ortner, the bank's senior economist also said he believed that the yen was undervalued and could go up by 10 or 15 pct. "I do not regard the dollar as undervalued at this point against the yen," he said. On the other hand, Ortner said that he thought that "the yen is still a little bit undervalued," and "could go up another 10 or 15 pct." In addition, Ortner, who said he was speaking personally, said he thought that the dollar against most European currencies was "fairly priced." Ortner said his analysis of the various exchange rate values was based on such economic particulars as wage rate differentiations. Ortner said there had been little impact on U.S. trade deficit by the decline of the dollar because at the time of the Plaza Accord, the dollar was extremely overvalued and that the first 15 pct decline had little impact. He said there were indications now that the trade deficit was beginning to level off. Turning to Brazil and Mexico, Ortner made it clear that it would be almost impossible for those countries to earn enough foreign exchange to pay the service on their debts. He said the best way to deal with this was to use the policies outlined in Treasury Secretary James Baker's debt initiative.