Car Makers Ready ‘Dumping’ Complaint

U.S. auto makers, quietly encouraged by the Reagan Administration, are trying to prepare a major trade action accusing Japanese companies of illegally “dumping” vehicles by maintaining prices at artificially low levels, industry and government officials said Thursday.

They said the proposed challenge--likely to focus, at least initially, on sales of light-duty trucks, a fast-growing segment of the industry--will contend that Japanese companies have not raised prices enough to reflect the recent increase in the yen’s value against the dollar.

The case could open the way to other major dumping cases based on exchange rate changes, rather than on more traditional grounds.

However, industry and congressional sources, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the auto industry is having a hard time settling on tactics, and the precise form of the complaint has not yet been determined.

Backing by Verity

Auto company executives have been encouraged to file the action by top Reagan Administration officials, including Commerce Secretary C. William Verity, industry officials said. Verity has publicly warned Japan that it faced possible dumping charges if it continued to hold down import prices in the face of a rising yen.

“That endeared him to a lot of people around here. Other secretaries and other U.S. spokesmen have not been that tough with the Japanese,” said Richard Muller, a Washington representative of Chrysler.

Edwin Dale, a top Verity aide, denied that Verity solicited U.S. companies to file such actions. Despite Verity’s earlier comments, “there has been no follow-up in terms of producing cases,” Dale said.

The yen has risen roughly 80% against the dollar since 1985, but prices of Japanese goods have not risen by an equivalent amount. Japanese manufacturers, in many instances, have taken smaller profits in an effort to cling to their share of lucrative U.S. markets.