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Unions, Manufacturer Allege TV Dumping In International Trade Commission Suit

May 5, 2003

Unfair and illegal trading practices by overseas manufacturers have played no small part in the sharp decline of Americas industrial base, causing millions of layoffs and contributing to a weak domestic economy and a rising number of unemployed workers.

On May 2, labor and management took their beef with Asian color television manufacturers to the worlds arbiter of international trade disputes, the International Trade Commission. The IBEW, the International Union of Electrical, Electronic Furniture and Salaried Workers (IUE-CWA) and Five Rivers Electronic Innovations, a Tennessee company, on Friday charged China and Malaysia with violating international trade laws by selling televisions here at unfairly low prices.

Seeking antidumping duties on color televisions from China and Malaysia, the IBEW and its fellow petitioners plan to show that the imports are being sold in the United States at lower prices than they cost to produce. Over time, this practiceknown as "dumping"can seriously injure or destroy an industry.

"The U.S. industrial base has already been decimated by unfair trading practices," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "This practice is an attempt by foreign competitors to drive the final nail into the coffin of our domestic electronic manufacturing industry. We need to act now to prevent losing the remaining jobs and capacity we now have."

World Trade Organization agreements allow governments to act against dumping when there is material injury to the competing domestic industry. Anti-dumping action normally allows charging extra import duty on a product from an exporting country to bring its price closer to the normal value. The ITC will investigate whether the U.S. television industry is being injured by dumped imports from China and Malaysia and the U.S. Department of Commerce will investigate whether the foreign producers are dumping the products in the United States. If both agencies agree, a dumping duty is imposed. The investigation will take approximately one year to complete.

The petitioners are seeking the assessment of duties ranging to 84 percent on color televisions from China, the world largest producer, and up to 46 percent on televisions from Malaysia. The duties, equal to the amount of the price discrimination, would place the manufacturers from the United States on equal footing with their Asian competitors.

Trade figures tell a tale of domestic industry struggling to compete against the manufacturers whose sales in the United States increased a staggering 1,166 percent between 2000 and 2002.

"These numbers, plus the resulting injury to the U.S. manufacturers and their workers, clearly justify the bringing of these cases," said David Hartquist, lawyer for the petitioners.

The United States recorded $435.2 billion trade deficit last year, the largest trade deficit in history, due in large part to American consumers fondness for cheap Asian imports. The costliest trade gapat a deficit of $103.1 billionwas with China.

But it isnt just the countrys trade base thats suffering from the lopsided trade situation.

U.S. Commerce Department figures show foreign trade has reduced gross domestic product (GDP, a key economic measure of the health of an economy) growth in 10 of the last 11 years, for a total loss of more than 5 percent of the GDP.

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