US hits cheap China washing machines with punitive duties

Chinese manufacturers are dumping washing machines into the US market at artificially low prices, making them subject to punitive duties of up to 52 percent, the Commerce Department announced Friday.

In a case brought by US appliance manufacturer Whirlpool a year ago, in a market that saw $1.1 billion imports in 2015, one Chinese firm was found to be dumping the large clothes washers at up to 52.5 percent below the fair price.

The Commerce Department has ordered importers to begin paying the punitive duties immediately, but the final step will come January 23 when the International Trade Commission will rule on whether the dumping has harmed US companies, in which case the penalties on the Chinese products will be enforced permanently.

Suzhou Samsung Electronics was found to be selling at the biggest gap below fair value, while other producers had margins of 44.3 percent, and Nanjing LG-Panda Appliances with the smallest gap, of 32 percent.

The latest antidumping case comes on the eve of China's 15th anniversary of joining the World Trade Organization, which was supposed to mark the formal recognition of the country as a market economy. 

China wants that status as it would make antidumping cases harder to file, but the United States has indicated it is not ready to change how it handles these cases, as has Japan.