TYPEWRITER TRADE RULING TOPSY-TURVY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993                   TAG: 9302040059
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
TYPEWRITER TRADE RULING TOPSY-TURVY
It looks like a trade world turned upside down: The Commerce Department rules that an American company unfairly dumped electric typewriters in the United States - injuring a Japanese company.
Outrageous? Not really, in a world of multinational companies.
The Japanese company is Brother USA, a subsidiary of Brother Industries of Nagoya, Japan. But it makes all the electric typewriters it sells in the United States at a plant employing 600 Americans in Bartlett, Tenn.
The American company is Smith Corona of New Canaan, Conn. Asked about the irony of being sued by the Japanese for dumping in the United States, company spokeswoman Patricia Cornell said, "Several people have pointed that out."
But Smith Corona imports most of the typewriters it sells in America from a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore. And Cornell said the company is closing its only U.S. typewriter-making plant, in Cortland, N.Y., laying off 775 Americans and moving the operation to Mexico.
To add to the multinational mix, nearly half of Smith Corona - 47.6 percent - is owned by a British conglomerate, Hanson Plc, which also owns Grove Worldwide Co. in Salem and MW Manufacturing Inc. of Rocky Mount.
In its preliminary ruling, Commerce said portable electric typewriters made by Smith Corona PTE Ltd. of Singapore "are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value." Customs officials will require a cash deposit equivalent to a 16 percent anti-dumping duty on Smith Corona imported typewriters.
If a final ruling, due by the end of May, determines that the imports materially injure or threaten U.S. producers - in this case mainly Brother USA - the deposits will be kept by the government and the duty continued.
Commerce estimates the value of the imported typewriters in 1992 was $82.3 million. So the dumping penalty could be as much as $13.2 million a year.
Smith Corona said ongoing appeals "will establish that Brother does not represent the U.S. industry and is not entitled to maintain an anti-dumping action against Smith Corona."
Smith Corona argued that Brother's typewriters have few U.S. components. Brother USA conceded it brings in parts from all over, largely from developing countries such as the Philippines.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB