Chinese color television manufacturers have entrusted a national industry organization to negotiate with the US Department of Commerce over proposed anti-dumping tariffs.

The China Chamber of Commerce for Imports and Exports of Machinery and Electronic Products said it has united domestic TV producers and lawyers to argue against dumping charges made earlier this week by the United States.

"We are collecting materials related to the dumping charge and will seek communication opportunities with the US department," said Liu Mei, vice president of the chamber.

"It is a pity that the US department has adopted an unfair calculating method to count Chinese TV makers' dumping margins."

The US department said in a statement that its preliminarily investigation found four Chinese color television receiver producers were selling their products in the American market at less than fair value, with margins ranging from 27.94 percent to 45.87 percent.

The four companies are Konka Group Co, Sichuan Changhong Electric Co, TCL Holding Co and Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic Co.

If the US International Trade Commission makes a final affirmative conclusion on dumping duties for Chinese TV makers next year, all Chinese color TV producers will have to pay anti-damping tariffs.

The chamber disagrees with the US Commerce Department's methodology of deciding a fair price for Chinese televisions.

The department looked at the production costs in India as a fair comparison.

Some 70 to 80 percent of electric parts used to produce TV sets in China are bought through large-scale sourcing from global markets, noted one official from the chamber, who declined to be identified.

That, alongside the low labor costs in China are the two major reasons why the prices of made-in-China color TV sets are lower than those in India, said the official.

Liu Haizhong, a spokesman for Sichuan Changhong, said his company is working closely with the chamber to fight against the case.

Changhong makes 86.7 percent of color TV sets sold to the US market last year.

Separately, the chamber said Thursday US-based Gleason Industrial Products has filed a petition with the US Commerce Department asking for an anti-dumping investigation on trucks made in China.

(Shanghai Daily November 28, 2003)