OHIO LAWMAKERS: CHINA DUMPING CLOTHES WASHERS
Ohio’s two senators and Columbus-area Rep. Pat Tiberi Wednesday urged the U.S. International Trade Commission to weigh in on accusations that China has been dumping large residential clothes washers into the U.S. market to the detriment of a company with 10,000 workers in the state.
The trio submitted testimony as part of an all-day hearing investigating a petition filed by Whirlpool Corp. in December 2015. The petition accuses Samsung and LG of pricing their washers below Whirlpool in order to damage Whirlpool’s business.
In July, the Department of Commerce issued a preliminary ruling requiring that Samsung and LG pay cash deposits on washers exported to the United States from their production facilities in China. Commerce also decided to apply Samsung’s dumping rate retroactively 90 days in response to the company stockpiling washers to undermine the impact of the ruling.
With a crowd of roughly 50 Whirlpool employees from Clyde in the crowd, Sen. Sherrod Brown urged the commission to determine that Samsung and LG had cheated by dumping washers in the U.S. market.
“When our foreign competitors do whatever it takes to cheat, we must do whatever it takes to fight back,” the Ohio Democrat said.
But John Toohey, director of strategy at LG Electronics USA, said washers are not a commodity — there are up to 10 brands with prices from $300 to $1,500. He disputed the notion that the company was dumping its product, saying the company’s goal was to create a “lifelong relationship” between consumers and the LG Brand. He argued that his company does not sell a “conventional washer,” while Whirlpool does.
The latest Whirlpool case comes nearly four years after the federal government found that Samsung and LG were dumping large residential clothes washers exported to the United States from South Korea and Mexico. After that ruling, Samsung and LG moved their washer production for the United States to China — a decision Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said allowed the companies to continue to undercut Whirlpool.
“Free of duties that the commission had imposed on the washers coming from Korea, they continued their assault on the U.S. market and have continued to undermine Whirlpool’s investments,” he testified.
Whirlpool, which has locations in Marion, Findlay, Ottawa, Greenville and Clyde, employs 22,000 nationwide. The Clyde location employs about 3,000, said Brown.