After protests by Motorola Ltd, the only local manufacturer of cellular telephones to the UK TACS standard, the EEC Commission has initiated an anti-dumping proceeding against Japanese and Canadian manufacturers of cellular phones. Motorola says that although there is strong demand for the car telephones that it manufactures at Stotfold, Basingstoke, the underlying price structure of the industry has been driven down to levels where it will be difficult or impossible to achieve a reasonable rate of return on its investment because of the alleged dumping by Japanese and Canadian companies. It claims that the companies – JRC, Kokusai, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, NEC and Novatel Communications, are selling phones in the UK at as little as a third the price they charge for the same units in their home markets. Motorola already has a patent infringement complaint against Novatel filed with the US International Trade Commission. A similar anti-dumping complaint brought by Motorola in the US resulted in anti-dumping duties of from 58% to 108% being imposed on Japanese cellular phones.
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