U.S. Places Duties on TVs From China

Televisions from China will face import duties of as much as 78% after a U.S. agency found Friday that the less expensive Chinese products were hurting the industry here and threatening the jobs of 3,226 Americans.

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled 5 to 0 that Chinese companies such as Konka Group Co. and TCL Holding Co. must pay the duties on the $319-million worth of televisions they ship to the U.S., a decision contested by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other U.S. retailers.

The decision is the fourth and last ruling in the yearlong process kicked off by a complaint from Five Rivers Electronic Innovations, a television assembler based in Greeneville, Tenn., and two labor unions.

U.S. television output fell 27% from 2001 to 2003, while imports from China increased to 1.8 million units in 2003 from 56,000 in 2001, according to the industry’s filing. Television imports from Mexico were at $7 billion last year, and opponents of the tariffs had contended that Chinese imports were replacing those from Mexico.

U.S. producers of goods as diverse as garlic and bedroom furniture are filing complaints with the Commerce Department to curb Chinese imports after China opened a record $124-billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year.

The tariffs probably will close the U.S. market to products from TCL, Konka and other Chinese producers.

“It would be hard to sell with these kinds of margins,” said Raymond Paretzky, a Washington lawyer representing TCL.

TCL in November agreed to merge its TV business with that of Thomson, the French maker of RCA brand TVs, to create the world’s largest TV manufacturer, with $3.5 billion in annual sales.

Retailers are becoming increasingly vocal in opposition to tariff petitions.

“It’s a recent phenomenon that Wal-Mart would get involved in one of these trade cases,” said David Hartquist, a lawyer for Five Rivers.

Wal-Mart tapped a Chinese producer for its post-Thanksgiving television special last year during which it sold as many as 1 million televisions, according to legal filings and lawyers.

“U.S. producers frequently cannot meet our volume requirements,” said Kevin O’Connor, Wal-Mart’s vice president in charge of television purchases, in testimony to the International Trade Commission last year. A company spokesman didn’t return calls Friday.

The Chinese firms have denied the charges that they sell their televisions unfairly.

Konka plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. International Trade Court, the company said last month in anticipation of the commission’s decision.