Sail across the sea

Chapter 578 Wouldn't it be better to leave work early?

Kitajima Masanobu carefully straightened his tie in front of the mirror, then nodded to himself with satisfaction.

He thought the slightly balding middle-aged man in the mirror looked incredibly handsome, the kind of man who frequented government residences and top-tier office buildings, able to chat and laugh with high-ranking government officials and CEOs of large corporations. Although, so far, such a scene only existed in his dreams.

Masanobu Kitajima owns a company called Tokusatsu Co., Ltd., which has more than 30 employees and generates annual sales of over one billion yen. Kitajima personally earns more than 100 million yen in profit, which is about 20 times the average annual income of an ordinary white-collar worker. This is enough to satisfy Kitajima.

When he recalls his trip to China ten years ago, Masanobu Kitajima is filled with gratitude.

At the time, he was commissioned by a Japanese chemical equipment company to set a trap for a young Chinese man named Gao Fan. To his surprise, the young man immediately discovered his deception and threatened to hand him over to the police, forcing him to grow potatoes in Siberia.

Of course, Kitajima Masanobu later realized that the Chinese police would not send people to Siberia to grow potatoes, as that place was not within China's territory.

What was even more unexpected was that the young man immediately gave him a choice: to return to Japan and become a product agent for the company where the young man worked.

The first product he represented was a chemical cleaning agent produced by a company called Canghua Science and Trade. Its ability to remove dirt far exceeded that of similar products sold in the Japanese market, winning praise from housewives and earning Kitajima Masanobu his first pot of gold.

From then until now, he has been a product agent for that company, selling not only constantly upgraded chemical cleaning agents, but also vitamins and several different types of paint. That company's products always have something unique about them, and the market response is good, so selling them isn't difficult; you could say he's making money effortlessly.

During this period, he also tried to become an agent for other companies' products, but without success. He didn't know if it was because those companies lacked technology or because he himself lacked business acumen. Later, he came to a realization that it was enough to stick with one company and continue working there.

By the way, that company later changed its name to Canghai Chemical Group.

Today, Kitajima Masanobu is on his way to carry out an important task assigned to him by Canghai Chemical Group: to submit a lawsuit to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, accusing China of dumping fluorite on the Japanese market.

Masanobu Kitajima only learned about fluorite a week ago. Three days ago, he signed an agency agreement with a Mexican fluorite supplier, nominally becoming the Mexican company's agent in the Japanese market.

Mexico is the world's richest country in fluorite resources and remains the world's largest exporter of fluorite. However, this position will soon be overtaken by China. In recent years, China's fluorite exports have surged, and surpassing Mexico is just around the corner.

The Mexican company that Masanobu Kitajima represented was not a well-known company, but rather one of the lowest-ranking fluorite exporters in Mexico, and had never exported fluorite to Japan before.

When Masanobu Kitajima proactively called Mexico, claiming he wanted to become their agent for the Japanese market, the other party almost thought he was a scammer. Even though he truly was.

After half an hour of nonsensical phone communication, the other party reluctantly agreed to cooperate with Desong Company. The two parties drafted an agency agreement, but the responsibilities, rights, and obligations were practically nonexistent.

The agreement was drafted in English by Desong Company, stamped, and then faxed to the other party. The other party stamped the faxed copy and sent it back to Desong Company, at which point the agreement became effective.

In fact, the other party never understood what Tokusatsu Company's purpose was. The reason they agreed to sign a contract with Kitajima Masanobu was simply because they couldn't stand Kitajima Masanobu's broken English.

As for whether Masanobu Kitajima is actually a fraudster, the other party doesn't care, because the terms of the agreement have no binding force. You could even consider it just a price list that the Mexican company sent to potential clients.

This is exactly what Kitajima Masanobu needs. To sue China for dumping, he first needs a suitable legal status. It seems unreasonable for a sweet potato vendor to accuse a country of dumping space shuttles; neither the Ministry of Finance nor the Ministry of International Trade and Industry would accept his lawsuit.

However, if he is an importer of Mexican fluorite, then suing China for dumping fluorite is perfectly reasonable. Mexican fluorite has a FOB price of $110 per ton, while Chinese fluorite has an FOB price of only $70. What else could this be but dumping?
The precise definition of dumping refers to a situation where the export price of a country's goods is lower than the price at which they are sold domestically, essentially amounting to malicious price-cutting to seize market share. Theoretically, the lower prices of Chinese exports compared to Mexican exports do not constitute dumping, as this could stem from differences in production costs between the two countries.

However, the pretext for initiating anti-dumping investigations in various countries is that the price of goods from one country is lower than that of goods from other countries, leading the importing country to suspect that the exporting country is engaging in malicious price-cutting. Since there is suspicion, the importing country's government has an obligation to conduct an investigation, and temporarily freezing imports of these goods until the investigation results are available is reasonable.

Many countries, in order to protect their domestic industries, often launch anti-dumping investigations based on unfounded evidence. Their aim is not to reach any conclusions, but to use the investigation period to give their domestic industries a chance to breathe.

Those capable of pushing government departments to launch anti-dumping investigations are typically large domestic companies, because only they possess sufficient influence. Kitajima Masanobu's Tokumatsu Company is merely a small enterprise and has no power to persuade government departments to stand up for it.

Kitajima Masanobu didn't care whether the government would stand up for him; all he needed to do was stir up trouble. He knew that given the bureaucratic style of the Japanese government, once someone filed a complaint, the officials would handle it according to procedure, and no one wanted to be accused of dereliction of duty.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry will not initiate complicated investigation procedures because of a lawsuit filed by a small business, but they will at least report the matter to China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and ask China to conduct its own investigation.

They also know that if they don't put pressure on China, China will definitely submit a hollow self-examination report and gloss over the matter.

What the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry needed was this empty report, because with it they could get by.

Wouldn't it be better to leave work early?
(End of this chapter)