Having made itself look utterly stupid by imposing crippling anti-dumping duties on Japanese active matrix displays, with the only effect of driving manufacture of laptop computers offshore, the US Commerce Department looks set to make itself look equally foolish over Brother Industries Ltd’s claim that the electronic typewriters made by Smith Corona Corp in Singapore are unfairly undercutting the machines it makes in Tennessee: having appeared to acknowledge that Brother was fully manufacturing in the US 10 days ago, it has now decided that Brother fails to qualify as an American manufacturer and is therefore not entitled to US protection.
