Trade Cases

USITC: Washing Machine Imports Hurting U.S. Manufacturers

October 8, 2017

Increased imports of foreign-made washing machines into the U.S. are causing serious injury to the domestic industry, said the U.S. International Trade Commission in an Oct. 5 determination.

Under Section 202 of the Trade Act of 1974, the commission voted 4-0 in the global safeguard investigation that was prompted by a petition from Whirlpool Corp. earlier this year. Under Section 202, the commission must also make determinations regarding the imports of the product from countries with which the U.S. has free trade agreements, such as NAFTA. Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent made negative findings with respect to imports from Canada and Mexico and all other FTA countries.

The findings and recommendations for action will be forwarded in a report to the president by Dec. 4. The president will make the final decision on whether to provide relief to the domestic industry and what kind of remedies to apply, including in respect to imports from FTA countries.

This determination is important to the steel industry not only because of the steel content used in washing machines, but also as a test of how far the administration will go to protect U.S. industries from foreign imports.

In January, Commerce imposed final antidumping margins ranging from 32.12 percent to 52.51 percent on large residential washing machines from China. In February, the ITC posted an affirmative preliminary injury determination on residential washers from Korea and Mexico. Whirlpool was also the petitioner in these investigations.