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South Carolina TV Maker Gets Tariffs Waiver, Will Stay in Business

Element Electronics, a South Carolina TV maker, won't have to shut down after all now that it's received a waiver on tariffs.
Credit: Ken Ruinard /Staff

Fairfield County, SC (The Greenville News) - Even as an additional $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods are set to go into effect Monday, a South Carolina assembly plant has gotten a pass on paying import taxes on the Chinese flat screens it says it needs to continue making television sets.

Element Electronics, which employs 134 people at a plant in Winnsboro, announced in early August that the tariffs President Donald Trump's administration had already imposed on billions of dollars in Chinese components over the summer had made the cost of making their TVs too high.

Previous Coverage: Fairfield County TV Plant Hopes To Avoid Laying Off 126 Employees

Plant officials had said they would have to start laying off workers on Oct. 5 if they were unable to get a tariff waiver on parts to make flat screen TVs.

Brian Symmes, spokesman for Gov Henry McMaster, confirmed in an email Tuesday evening that the plant had secured the waivers and would stay open. He said the governor had called the company's owner

“The governor has said from day one that we needed to exercise patience throughout this process and most of us have done that. This is great news for Fairfield County, Element Electronics, and all of Team South Carolina that worked hard to make sure the facts were known and that Element’s case was made to the administration.”

Element is the nation's only television assembly plant, employing 134 people in Winnsboro just north of Columbia. It is owned by the O'Shaughnessy Holding Co. out of Minnesota and makes five flat-screen TV models primarily for Walmart. The TVs' four main parts, all imported from China, include a screen that makes up 70 to 75 percent of their cost.

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