So is Honda dumping? Are other Japanese automakers?
Whenever the issue of dumping arises, I recall an interview I did in 1977, back when U.S.-Japan trade disputes were a staple of reporting from Japan.
The head of Japan’s industrial fastener association was incensed at the United States, which was preparing to impose anti-dumping duties on nuts, bolts and other fasteners from Japan. I was interviewing him in his offices across the street from Tokyo Tower.
“We’re not dumping!” he insisted. “Because of the yen’s strength against the dollar, we may have to sell below cost for a while to maintain our market share, but we’re not dumping.”
Ahem, I thought. How do you define dumping if selling below your costs doesn’t qualify?
In fact, he was right — sort of. Selling below cost is one of two criteria for determining whether a foreign producer or industry is guilty of dumping goods in the United States. The second: The imported goods also must be shown to be damaging a U.S. producer of the same goods.
It sure sounds like (…)
