Related Articles

Unions, Manufacturer
Win China Trade Dispute

July/August 2004 IBEW Journal

One year after the IBEW, IUE-CWA and a small domestic TV manufacturer went up against China in a dispute over unfair trade, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in the unions favor. The ITC held that U.S. workers and manufacturers were hurt by the import of TVs that are "dumped"sold below the cost of productionon the domestic market.

The action supports a prior finding by the U.S. Department of Commerce in favor of anti-dumping duties of up to 78 percent on more than $276 million worth of 21-inch screen and larger color televisions from China. The ITCs approval was needed before the duties could be imposed. The vote jump-starts the collection of anti-dumping duties averaging 23 percent on the TV imports. (See "IBEW Continues Fight for U. S. Television Makers," IBEW Journal, June 2004, pgs 16-17).

Edwin D. Hill, IBEW International President, expressed his approval of the decision. "For once, we have scored a victory for the working people who have lost so much to unfair trade throughout the world," he said. "The imposition of these duties is the fair and right thing to do for the U.S. industry and its workers."

Wal-Mart intends to appeal the ITC ruling. A Chinese producer, Konka, plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. International Trade Court.

TCL, Chinas second largest TV manufacturer, currently merging with Thomson Inc., arrogantly responded to the Commerce ruling in a statement to the Standard, a Chinese business newspaper. The company said that it would not be affected by the TV ruling because it can simply shift production to countries such as Vietnam to circumvent the duties.

China Daily featured an opinion article criticizing Chinese TV makers for the unfavorable decision by the ITC. The writers said that TV makers should have worked harder to win a better outcome and should have "foreseen the result, given the current climate in the United States." The article advises producers to compete in high-end products [big screen TVs] to "walk out of the anti-dumping shadow" and to build joint ventures abroad, particularly in Mexico "whose products are immune from U.S. anti-dumping charges."