P.M. BRIEFING : U.S. Firms Charge TV Dumping

WASHINGTON — A coalition representing television makers charged today that foreign manufacturers are skirting anti-dumping rules by shipping picture tubes to Mexico for assembly and import to the United States.

The group, the Committee to Preserve American Color Television, asked the Commerce Department to impose anti-dumping duties on color picture tubes entering the United States inside television sets made in Mexico.

Two years ago, the Commerce Department ruled that Japan, Korea, Singapore and Canada were “dumping” picture tubes into the U.S. market.

Since the department’s finding, imports of televisions from Mexico have increased 139%, the group said, while the volume of imported color televisions from the Far East has dropped significantly.

Color television imports from Japan have dwindled to fewer than 320,000 last year from 4.3 million in 1985. During the same period, imports from Mexico increased to 3.9 million from about 138,000.