The big story of the past 50 years has been the triumph of Western capitalism over Eastern communism ‘ although sometimes you begin to wonder. After 50 years, China has thrown off the yoke of socialism and embraced capitalism ‘ only to run headlong into Western protectionism. The US Department of Commerce has come up with another wheeze to fight off the challenge of Chinese manufacturers: tariffs of between 28 per cent and 46 per cent on television sets imported from China.
Chinese televisions, ruled US commerce secretary Don Evans, are being sold at beneath ‘fair value’. It isn’t hard to work out what Mr Evans means by ‘fair value’ ‘ whatever price happens to cause inconvenience for American television producers. The fact is that Chinese television companies are exporting their product to America at a profit ‘ and therefore they cannot be said to be dumping.
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