Samsung accused of shell game that harms Ohio workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Is Samsung moving its washing machine manufacturing again to keep undercutting prices of Ohio-made Whirlpool washers -- and is it putting Ohio jobs at risk?

That's what Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman wonder, and they asked the Commerce Department to find out.

Evidence so far is preliminary, for reasons we'll explain. Samsung sidestepped the question when cleveland.com asked if it was moving production from China to Vietnam and Thailand. "Samsung does not engage in unfair trade practices," Samsung Electronics North America said in a statement.

Samsung already got in trouble in July with the U.S. government, albeit preliminarily, for using China to undercut Whirlpool. It denied wrongdoing and is still fighting the case. But now the Ohio U.S. senators say Samsung may be moving manufacturing again, this time to Vietnamese and Thai plants, to avoid penalties it could have to pay if it keeps making its machines in China.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/10/samsung_accused_of_shell_game.html