China's Other Trade War; Computer Diskette Maker Says He's a Casualty in Fight With Low-Cost Manufacturers
In one corner is Snyder, 43, who started a software duplication business in his basement 12 years ago and has turned it into a thriving company in Frederick, Software Services Inc.</br></br>His opposition: a group of powerful, fast-growing Chinese companies that have become dominant global manufacturers of the pocket-size diskettes on which software programs are recorded for distribution.</br></br>A decision by Snyder two years ago to branch into the same field of diskette manufacturing put him squarely in the path of a surge of Chinese products priced too low for him to match.</br></br>Snyder claims that China is dumping the diskettes in the United States at unfairly low prices in violation of U.S. trade laws. Ronald Ryan, marketing director for Dysan International, the largest U.S. distributor of Chinese-made diskettes, denied that products are being dumped. "Absolutely not," he said.</br></br>He was forced to close his diskette factory in Tucson in January, laying off most of its 55 employees. Now he must tap half the Frederick company's profits for the $23,000 a month he needs to repay a Small Business Administration loan on the Tucson venture.