LG Electronics Vows to Contest Preliminary Finding in Refrigerator Dumping Investigation

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Oct 27, 2011, 01:30 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics and its affiliates will aggressively contest the dumping allegations and the methodologies used by the U.S. Department of Commerce in its preliminary determinations in the ongoing antidumping duty investigations of bottom mount refrigerator-freezers imported from Korea and Mexico.

In those determinations, the Commerce Department preliminarily found that LG Electronics USA, Inc. (LGEUS) and its affiliates LG Electronics, Inc. (LGE) and LG Electronics Monterrey Mexico (LGEMM), sold bottom-mount combinations refrigerator-freezers at dumped prices in the United States.

LGEUS, LGE and LGEMM strongly disagree with the DOC's findings and believe these findings will be reversed in the final determination to be issued in March 2012. Dumping exists if the prices to the U.S. market are lower than the prices in the comparison market.

Specifically, the Commerce Department calculated dumping duty rates of 4.09 percent for LGE and 16.44 percent for LGEMM. Based on a rarely used provision in the antidumping duty laws, the Commerce Department erroneously compared U.S. prices of Mexican refrigerators to the prices for Korean refrigerators in Korea, which highly inflated the antidumping duty margin in the Mexico case. Margins in both cases were further inflated by the Department's use of another comparison methodology (called "zeroing") which has been held to violate World Trade Organization standards upon which the antidumping duty laws are based.

LGEUS, LGE, and LGEMM have worked hard over the past seven months to provide the Department with extensive and accurate data required under the U.S. antidumping duty laws. "We are confident that LGE will prevail in the final determination, which will demonstrate that bottom mount refrigerators have not been dumped in the United States," said Wayne Park, president and CEO, LG Electronics USA.

At the same time that the Commerce Department issues its final determination in the antidumping duty investigations, it will issue a final determination in the countervailing duty investigation brought by Whirlpool Corporation regarding illegal subsidies obtained with respect to imports of bottom mount combination refrigerator-freezers from Korea. In that case, the Commerce Department issued a negative preliminary determination on August 30, 2011 based on its finding that any governmental benefit LGE may have obtained was negligible. Specifically, Commerce calculated a countervailing duty rate of 0.05 percent, well under the minimum actionable threshold of 1.0 percent.

LGE is a respondent in all three investigations and is confident that the Department's final determinations in these cases will demonstrate that Whirlpool's dumping and countervailing duty allegations are equally without merit and that LGE and its Mexican affiliate, LGEMM, have not dumped bottom-mount refrigerators in the United States.

About LG Electronics USA

LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a global force and technology leader in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a range of stylish and innovative home entertainment products, mobile phones, home appliances, commercial displays, air conditioning systems and solar energy solutions, all under LG's "Life's Good" marketing theme. For more information, please visit www.lg.com.

About LG Electronics, Inc.

LG Electronics, Inc. (KSE: 066570.KS) is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, mobile communications and home appliances, employing more than 93,000 people working in over 120 operations around the world. With 2010 global sales of $ 48.2 billion, LG comprises four business units – Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Home Appliance, and Air Conditioning & Energy Solutions. LG is one of the world's leading producers of flat panel TVs, mobile devices, air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators.

SOURCE LG Electronics USA