Zenith to Ask U.S. to Monitor TV Imports

NEW YORK —  Zenith Electronics Corp. hopes to break new ground in the fight against unfairly low-priced imports by asking the government to monitor imports of televisions from 10 countries, Zenith’s chairman said Tuesday.

The comments by Jerry Pearlman in a wide-ranging telephone interview were the first public disclosure of a key component in the plan of Glenview, Ill.-based Zenith for returning to consistent profitability.

A New York-based investment partnership earlier this month dropped its efforts to throw Pearlman off the board and get the company to sell its money-losing television business.

Zenith’s request to the government will be aimed at cutting off illegal “dumping” of inexpensive TVs from Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, not just the traditional sources of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, Pearlman said.

Zenith, the last major U.S.-based television manufacturer, has not had an annual profit since 1984, in large part because of fierce competition from low-priced imported televisions.

Zenith will seek protection under never-used 1984 legislation that allows the Commerce Department to monitor imports of televisions from new countries that are suspected of dumping. It can do so only if there is an anti-dumping order in place against more than one country already.

Dumping is the sale of products in foreign markets at unfairly low prices to get rid of excess production or force competitors out of business.

The legislation permits the Commerce Department to initiate its own anti-dumping action against the new countries if the agency finds evidence of dumping.

“I hope to file it (the petition) soon. Nobody’s going to talk me out of it,” said Pearlman, 49, Zenith’s chairman and president.

‘Right Direction’

In Washington, Commerce Department spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the department had received only one request for protection under the 1984 legislation and action on it had been deferred until next year. That concerned imports of brass sheets and strips.

She said she could not comment on Zenith’s petition before it had been received and studied.

Brookhurst Partners, the New York-based challenger to Pearlman, had sought shareholder support for its proposal to force Zenith to sell its money-losing consumer electronics business or, if that proved impossible, to find a buyer for the whole company.

It dropped the shareholder solicitation on Dec. 2, shortly before votes were to be counted, saying it was satisfied that Zenith was “headed in the right direction.”

Although the pressure from Brookhurst is off, Pearlman said, “we’re not going to relax” in efforts to improve Zenith’s profitability. The company has a profitable line of personal computers, but its overall results have been dragged down by losses in televisions.

Pearlman said he expected the company to meet the goal, stated in October, of a pretax profit for 1988. But he indicated that it would be a close call and said taxes could push the bottom line into the red.