On August 29, 2013, an antidumping case involving South Korea began at the World Trade Organization over U.S. tariffs imposed on imported washing machines.
[1] The antidumping investigation came in response to a petition filed in December 2011 by Whirlpool Corporation, claiming washing machines imported from South Korea and Mexico were being sold at prices below fair market value.
The U.S International Trade Commission ruled 6–0 in favor of Whirlpool, finding that the U.S washing machine industry was threatened by imports of residential washers from South Korea.
Both LG and Samsung have since challenged Commerce's findings in the U.S. Court of International Trade, using the argument that the ITC improperly used the zeroing method to calculate dumping margins.
[5] The WTO said South Korea has taken issue with the U.S. Department of Commerce's use of zeroing, a controversial method for calculating anti-dumping duties that has been the subject of other WTO cases against the U.S. Zeroing is a way of calculating anti-dumping duties that does not provide offsets for instances of "negative dumping" — that is, when an imported product is sold in the U.S. at prices equal to or higher than in its home country — in determining a dumping margin.