*EPF509 05/14/2004
U.S. Trade Panel Imposes Duties on Color Televisions from China
(Imports injure U.S. industry, ITC rules) (280)

Washington -- The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has decided to impose antidumping tariffs on imports of color televisions from China.

In a 5-0 vote, the commissioners made May 14 an affirmative final determination that the imports injured U.S. industry, a ruling that leads to imposition of duties ranging up to 78.45 percent.

Imposition of antidumping duties equal to dumping margins requires final affirmative determinations both from the Department of Commerce on dumping and from the USITC on injury. The Commerce Department issued its affirmative final determination in April.

A U.S. color television manufacturer and trade unions, which filed the case, welcomed the decision. They said that the rapidly growing imports from China -- according to the Commerce Department, they climbed from $23.9 million in 2001 to $276.4 million in 2003 -- threatened to destroy a viable U.S. industry.

But a Chinese Ministry of Commerce official said April 14 that Commerce's ruling was unfair because the department used a wrong method to calculate dumping margins.

The dumping margins calculated by Commerce are:

-- Konka Group Company, Ltd., 11.36 percent;
-- Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., 24.48 percent;
-- TCL Holding Company Ltd., 22.36 percent;
-- Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic Co., Ltd., 4.35 percent;
-- all others, 21.49 percent; and
-- China-wide, 78.45 percent.

Dumping is the sale of an export good at a price below the home-market or a third-country price, or below the cost of production. The dumping margin is the price difference expressed as a percentage of the export price.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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