Whirlpool Corp (NASDAQ:$WHR) is an appliance giant within the American industry. On Thursday, the company called on the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose a “global safeguard” restriction on imported machines from South Korean competitors Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (NASDAQ:$SSNLF) and LG Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ:$LGL) from flooding the American market.
Jeff Fettig, Chief Executive Officer of Whirlpool insinuated in a statement that accused Samsung and LG of purposely avoiding paying U.S. duties. His reasoning was that both companies have been moving operations around the world. In fact, both Samsung and LG have moved major manufacturing projects to five different countries.
“A global safeguard is absolutely critical because it is the only tool available under U.S. trade law that can remedy the impact of Samsung and LG’s evasive country hopping behavior,” said Fettig.
This isn’t the first case of its kind. In January, through a 6-0 decision by the ITC, final duties on Chinese imported machines was marked as high as 52.5 % to protect American domestic producers.
In this current case, Whirlpool has been pursuing anti-dumping cases for years against South Korean rivals with little success. However, the company hopes for different results as Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross instilled a mandate for a much tough trade enforcement agenda under Section 201 of the Trade Act.
The final vote of the ITC will take place later this month. If passed, the final decision will be reached by President Trump in early 2018.
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