Calling it a “victory for American workers and consumers alike,” Whirlpool Corporation Chairman Jeff Fettig is praising the Trump Administration’s decision today to uphold long-standing trade rules by establishing a tariff of up to the legal maximum of 50-percent on imports of large residential washing machines. The move alongside the President’s similar move on imported solar panels is being heralded in multiple industrial circles as a very strong message to companies attempting to continue the illegal dumping of cheaper products into the American market as unfair competition.
The administration announced the remedy to address Samsung and LG’s decade-long efforts to unlawfully dump washers and circumvent U.S. law.
Fettig says, “This announcement caps nearly a decade of litigation and will result in new manufacturing jobs in Ohio, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee.” He adds, “This is a victory for American workers and consumers alike. By enforcing our existing trade laws, President Trump has ensured American workers will compete on a level playing field with their foreign counterparts, enabled new manufacturing jobs here in America and will usher in a new era of innovation for consumers everywhere.”
The BentonHarbor-based appliance giant added 200 new full-time positions at its manufacturing plant in Clyde, Ohio, in anticipation of increased demand following a safeguard remedy decision. The new hires are just the beginning of increased investments in innovation, manufacturing and additional manufacturing jobs for Whirlpool and its vendors.
Fettig went on to say, “We want to thank the president, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, the International Trade Commission and members of Congress for putting American workers first.” But, he didn’t stop there, saying, “We also want to thank our passionate, hard-working employees for producing the highest quality, most innovative washing machines in the world. We pursued these trade cases for them, and we hope today’s announcement finally reestablishes real competition.”
The president will implement a tariff rate quota effective for three years that covers finished large residential washers and key washer parts imported from all countries, including South Korea. Additional details are available on the USTR’s website by clicking the link below:
Today’s announcement from the White House is the culmination of litigation that began in 2011, when Whirlpool filed its first anti-dumping petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The ITC voted unanimously in all three cases brought by Whirlpool that imports by Samsung and LG injured American workers and manufacturers.
Here is a timelilne of the Case History provided by Whirlpool:
In 2013, the U.S. Government found that Samsung and LG were unlawfully dumping South Korean and Mexican washers into the United States.
The two companies responded by moving washer production to China.
In early 2017, the U.S. Government issued a new antidumping order against Samsung and LG for washers made in China.
Even before the government established those penalties, the two companies stockpiled washers in the U.S. and immediately moved production to Vietnam and Thailand when the penalties took effect.
In May 2017, Whirlpool Corp. filed a safeguard petition with the U.S. ITC to end this pattern of serial country-hopping to circumvent trade orders.
In October 2017, The ITC voted unanimously that increased large-residential washer imports have been (or threaten to be) a substantial cause of serious injury to the U.S. washer industry.
In December 2017, the ITC provided its remedy recommendations to the president.
Meanwhile, the President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Scott Paul, issued this statement:
“We are pleased that the Trump administration acted forcefully to defend American workers in both the solar panel and washing machine trade cases.
“These workers and manufacturers make some of the best products in the world and have been innovation leaders. But they cannot compete against surging unfair imports from countries like China, which are dumping product into the United States in an attempt to put American companies out of business and control the global marketplace.
“Now that President Trump has taken action in these high profile cases, we hope that he also will keep his promise to defend American-made steel and aluminum and act on the Section 232 investigations by the end of January.”
