NEC appeals against supercomputer dumping case

Littleton, 06 November 97 NEC and its U.S. subsidiary HNSX Supercomputers have appealed to the Court of International Trade against the September 26, 1997 determination by the International Trade Commission that imports of Japanese supercomputers threatened to injure U.S. supercomputer producers. Samuel W. Adams, vice president of HNSX for Sales and Marketing, stated that "The ITC found a threat of injury despite the fact that U.S. producers dominate the market, sales by Japanese firms have been minimal, and Japanese supercomputers are in fact excluded from a significant share of the U.S. market. This finding is wholly at odds with the evidence presented to the ITC and with the realities of the supercomputer market."

According to NEC, ITC's determination was based on an arbitrary limitation of the U.S. supercomputer industry to vector supercomputers produced by Cray, that excluded entirely the supercomputers sales of IBM, Silicon Graphics and other industry leaders. "The ITC constructed an artificial market so that it could reach a finding of threat to Cray," said Adams. "In the real world, the notion that U.S. supercomputer makers are currently threatened by imports from Japan is completely implausible." The ITC's findings resulted in the imposition of dumping duties of up to 454 percent of Japanese supercomputers.

The ITC determination was the last in a series of steps by the U.S. Government designed to exclude Japanese supercomputers from the U.S. market, claims NEC. The supercomputer controversy arose in the Spring of 1996 when the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a federally funded climate research facility, tried to purchase NEC supercomputers. The NEC equipment exceeded all of UCAR's performance requirements, while supercomputers offered by Cray were not capable of running UCAR's research applications, as was expained by Bill Buzbee, head of th UCAR centre.

In order to block UCAR from acquiring Japanese supercomputers, the Department of Commerce found NEC guilty of dumping without any input from NEC and before any dumping case had been initiated. "The U.S. Government's response to UCAR's procurement decision shows beyond a doubt that the Government is determined to bar Japanese supercomputers from the U.S. market. The dumping charge was just a pretext," said Adams.

The Japanese Government has protested NEC's exclusion from the U.S. market before the World Trade Organization and under the U.S.-Japan Supercomputer Procurement Agreement. It is expected that the governements will discuss the topics later this month.

Ad Emmen