Whirlpool wants LG, Samsung to pay duty

Whirlpool, the world’s largest maker of appliances, asked the U.S. to impose duties on clothes-washer imports from rivals LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics for violating international trade laws.

LG and Samsung sell residential washers made in Mexico and Korea for less than the products’ fair value, undermining competition and threatening U.S. jobs, Whirlpool said in complaints filed on Saturday in Washington with the International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce.

Whirlpool also sought countervailing duties against imports from Korea, saying that country’s government provides unfair subsidies.

“It is important for an open global trading system to have a process for enforcement to maintain the integrity of the system and provide all manufacturers a level playing field on which to compete,” Marc Bitzer, president of Whirlpool North America, said in a statement.

LG is reviewing the petition, spokesman John Taylor said in an e-mail.

“LG strongly rejects any suggestion that it has sold clothes washers at dumped prices or that it has been unfairly subsidized,” Taylor said.

“LG intends to vigorously defend itself against these baseless claims.”

Ethan Rasiel, a Samsung spokesman, said in an e-mail that he declined to comment.

The Department of Commerce responded in October to a separate Whirlpool complaint, finding that LG and Samsung dumped bottom-mount refrigerators at low cost.

Samsung faces a tariff of 36.65 percent for refrigerators produced in Mexico and 32.2 percent for those from Korea based on the preliminary findings, the department said.

LG will pay 16.44 percent for products made in Mexico and 4.09 percent on Korea units.

Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, employs 3,500 workers at its factory in Clyde, Ohio, between Toledo and Cleveland, where the washers are made.

Bloomberg