TIME Magazine / FEBRUARY 7, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 5
TIMOTHY DOVE Action Battery: Hit by a $200,000 Bill from the Blue
BY DONALD L. BARLETT AND JAMES B. STEELE
"What do bananas and batteries have to do with each other?" asks an incredulous Timothy Dove. The owner of Action Battery in Somerset, Wis., a supplier of specialized batteries to the telecom industry, Dove found out last year that bananas are inextricably bound up in his financial future. And that isn't good for him.
The 10-ton batteries that he imports from Germany are one of the items the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) slapped with 100% tariffs to pressure Europe into abandoning its banana-import quotas. But instead of punishing Europe, the tariffs have squeezed Dove and others like him who have spent years painstakingly building businesses that are now hurt by forces over which they have no control.
A onetime millwright for 3M, Dove went into business for himself, installing the huge industrial batteries that telephone companies and other firms use as backups during power outages. The first years were a struggle, Dove recalls, and "there were many times after I started when I thought about going back to being a millwright." But he hung on and in 1990 hired his first employee. Today Action Battery has 19 employees and about $2 million a year in sales.
When Dove heard last year that one of his products was on the hit list, he hastily called the ustr office in Washington. "They told me it was too late," he recalls. "I was told that maybe if I'd called sooner, they could have done something."
"Why would I know about this?" he asks. "My job is selling batteries, not making sure our government isn't going to put a duty on me while I'm trying to run my business." After the shock wore off, Dove hustled to find replacements. "If I don't have anything to install," he said, "I've got to lay people off." He traveled at his own expense to Israel and Japan to line up new suppliers. Those trips, plus increased charges for new products, have cost him at least $200,000.
"I think that's a pretty steep price to pay for a small business," he said. "How long is this going to go on? Isn't it time to put these tariffs on somebody else?"
The Clinton Administration thinks not.
--WITH REPORTING BY LAURA KARMATZ AND ANDREW GOLDSTEIN AND RESEARCH BY JOAN LEVINSTEIN
COPYRIGHT c 2000 TIME INC.:
