Dumping controversy takes another twist

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Brunswick Corp. CEO George Buckley said his company would consider filing a new trade claim against Japanese manufacturers if it sees continued evidence of "dumping" products at unfair prices, the Associated Press reported in a story Friday.

Buckley called the recent ruling by the International Trade Commission, which rejected the anti-dumping claim filed by Brunswick's Mercury Marine boat-engine subsidiary against Yamaha Motor Co. and other Japanese outboard motor-makers, "wrong and probably politically motivated," in an AP interview.

Mercury officials said after the Feb. 2 ruling that they would not appeal. But Buckley made clear Brunswick isn't necessarily letting the matter drop.

"If we see any further activities of dumping, we do not rule out the possibility that we'll file again," he said when asked about the issue in an interview at company headquarters in Lake Forest, AP reported. "We're not going away, and our competition can be absolutely assured that we will defend ourselves with every means at our disposal, our creativity, our energy and if necessary the law."

U.S. rival Genmar Holdings Inc. has contended that Mercury and Brunswick tried to use the trade issue as an excuse to raise outboard engine prices.

Buckley responded that the claim was about fighting unfair trade advantages.

"It's my view that unless we do something to stop unfair competition and do something to, not protect, but let's just say guard against unfair competition, we're going to be a generation that presides over the systematic dismantling of manufacturing in America," he said. "It is decisions like the ITC made that contribute to that possibility or probability."

Russell Jura, general counsel for Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A., said Yamaha has raised prices in the United States and lowered them in Japan in order to ensure it remains in compliance with anti-dumping law.

"We view the ITC decision as correct," he said when informed of Buckley's comments. "In order to show dumping, there must be sales of less than normal value and injury to the domestic industry. They simply did not show both of those elements."

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