How Gov't. Created The Ironing Board Monopoly

WASHINGTON POST -- There is one factory left in the United States that manufactures the basic ironing board, and its survival against Chinese competition demands unrelenting, production-line hustle. The company survives in part because it convinced U.S. trade officials that Chinese firms were unfairly dumping ironing boards into the United States at less than fair-market value; in response, the United States levied anti-dumping taxes of 70 to more than 150 percent on its Chinese rivals.

But imposing tariffs on foreign goods also elicits loud protests, and not just from the foreign manufacturers who face the burden. Some U.S. retailers say that the tariffs have given the American factory, long the market leader in the United States, a near monopoly on ironing boards. And economists say that the tariffs push up prices for American consumers, who buy an estimated 7 million ironing boards each year.

Some economists have also questioned whether such tariffs amount to good U.S. policy.  "It doesn't make much sense to force millions of U.S. consumers to pay higher prices for ironing boards to save 200 jobs," said Howard Rosen, an economist at the Peterson Institute who has organized efforts to get retraining programs for workers displaced by the offshoring of jobs. "It would make more sense to help workers move to other jobs."

MP: Isn't this an example of how government trade policy created an anti-consumer, anti-competitive monopoly? Shouldn't the Department of Justice investigate?

HT: Steve Bartin