1/85 DUMPING CASES--CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT, DISK DRIVES, TRANSCEIVERS, AUTOMOBILE TELEPHONES, ELECTRONIC TYPEWRITERS

Tandon, the largest maker of floppy disc drives in the US, has filed suit at the International Trade Commission against Sony, TEAC, and Mitsubishi Electric for violation of its disc drive patents. .

Motorola Corporation has also filed an anti-dumping suit against 9 Japanese firms (Fujitsu, Hitachi, Nippon Musen, Kokusai Denki, Matsushita Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Oki Electric and Toshiba) for dumping automobile telephones in the US. In the suit, filed with the International Trade Commission in November 1984, Motorola charged that the Japanese were selling their products in the US for 30-50% lower than they did in Japan. Motorola charged that while the Japanese were charging over $2000 in Japan, in the US they were charging under $1500 and in cases of large orders even under $1000. Motorola charges that even though the cellular radio business was new and had just begun, they were already incurring losses due to Japanese pricing practices. The Japanese makers replied that it would be very difficult to prove damages as the market was so new. The Japanese charged that Motorola is angry because its market share in the US has fallen from 80% to under 50%. The Japanese claim that they are not dumping, but many believe that this time they are in a real quandary. Motorola has recently become one of the first firms to win a contract as a supplier to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which makes up the majority of the Japanese telecommunications market. The contract to supply cellular radio phone for automobile telephones. Thus Motorola was perfectly positioned to know the pricing structure for most sales in Japan. Thus many Japanese firms believed they may be forced to move production to the US. This should only bolster charges that the Japanese have used the vast, and difficult to decipher NTT market to obtain rich profits to use to support their low-price based advances into the US market. Perhaps this was the reason for the decision by the International Trade Commission in December 1984 to make a preliminary finding that the imports were injuring domestic producers. In the next step the Commerce Department will initiate its decision.

In a related case, the International Trade Commission in late November 1984 made its final decision that the imported transceivers used in base stations for cellular telephone units for automobile telephones were injuring domestic producers. The case was originally filed by E.F.Johnson Co. The 4-1 decision by the ITC means that the Commerce Department will order antidumping duties on Japanese imports. The dumping rate duty is likely to be 60%. .

Concerning construction equipment, in November 1984 a group from the EC Commission arrived in Japan to launch an investigation of dumping charges concerning hydraulic shovels against Komatsu, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Nihon Seikosho and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. They launched the investigation in August, 1984. In response to these concerns, Japanese makers, under MITI’s administrative guidance launched a minimum price cartel in July. In the US, Caterpillar has filed suit at the International Trade Commission charging that Komatsu is violating its patents on shallow excavating machines, asking that imports from the firm be banned. .

In late December, the EC Commission imposed a 43% anti-dumping tariff on Japanese electronic typewriters due to their cheap price export offensive. Sales of Japanese typewriters in the EC grew from 140,000 in FY 1982 to 360,000 in FY 1983, with their market share rising form 11.7% to 39.7%.

JAPAN LAWLETTER, January 1985. By Roderick Seeman