Shea-Porter aids Goss in Japanese anti-dumping case

17/04/2008 12:00 - 795 Views

DOVER — New Hampshire Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter filed legislation Thursday to help a Dover firm engaged in an anti-dumping case against a Japanese company that violated U.S. trade laws.

Shea-Porter's bill, HR 5667, would require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect a special duty from the Japanese firm, Tokyo Kikai Seiskusho (TKS), in accordance with a penalty imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Despite specific instructions, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not yet collected the duty.

 

Goss International, a printing press producer with 1,000 employees in Dover and Durham, is engaged in an anti-dumping case against TKS after a U.S. federal court found the Japanese firm had violated U.S. trade laws with the intent to gain an unfair advantage over American industry.

 

"American businesses and American workers have the right to expect that our trade laws will be upheld," said Shea-Porter, D-NH, in a prepared statement released by her spokeswoman, Clark Pettig. "When the rules are fair and the penalties are enforced, New Hampshire workers can compete with any workers in the world, and my bill will make sure the government acts to protect their jobs."

 

Goss officials say TKS officials flooded the U.S. market with underpriced goods. Goss won $31.6 million in a jury trial in 2003, but the Japanese government soon afterward passed a "claw back" statute that could force Goss's own subsidiary in Japan to pay back the judgment.

 

Goss officials then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's injunction against TKS. The injunction would have prevented TKS from using the claw back clause to recoup the $31.6 million from the subsidiary.

 

"The government has already found that the Japanese producer in this case violated trade laws," said Bob Brown, chief executive officer of Goss International, in a prepared statement issued by Shea-Porter's press office. "Despite finding fraud, our government hasn't followed through to collect the duty that should have been paid long ago."

 

Brown added in the statement that Shea-Porter's bill would require the U.S. government to collect the correct duty. Two years ago, Shea-Porter said U.S. Commerce Department determined that a 59.67 percent duty was appropriate to offset the amount of the unfairness.

 

Pettig said that after the U.S. Commerce Department decided the duty was appropriate, it was still up to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to decide whether to collect it. He said the bill, if passed, would direct the agency to do so.

 

"I think we're just addressing another angle and another piece of the puzzle," Pettig said.

 

Pettig said the congresswoman is well aware the Japanese company and the Japanese government could ignore this legislation just as it chosen to ignore the U.S. federal court rulings.

 

"But we still need to make the attempt," Pettig said.

 

By ROBERT M. COOK

bcook@fosters.com

 

Article Date: Friday, April 11, 2008

 

Source: www.fosters.com

 

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