A Japanese manufacturing firm was caught red-handed trying to destroy its only U.S. competitor, and our government has done little to help the American firm, while the Japanese government has come to the aid of its company by passing legislation to effectively nullify the American firm's hard-won financial award.

Don't think that this is of little consequence here in New Hampshire. The American firm has facilities in Dover and Durham.

The story of Goss International's fight against TKS of Japan seems sadly illustrative of the imbalance between reality and rhetoric when American politicians say they are for "free and fair" trade.

It was only through Goss' persistence, not our government's, that it was proven that TKS had sold press equipment in the U.S. at below-market costs. While the Commerce Department has now followed Goss' lead and is seeking imposition of an import penalty, the Bush administration has not always done so. A Government Accounting Office study has found that the U.S. has failed to collect more than a half-BILLION dollars in anti-dumping tariffs owed by foreign competitors.

The Japanese government, on the contrary, made it quite clear whose side it was on. No sooner did Goss win a $31 million court verdict against TKS then Tokyo passed "clawback" legislation that allows TKS to seize $31 million in Goss assets in Japan.

The U.S. District Court judge who presided over the Goss verdict was rightly furious, saying this was contradictory to her order and an interference with U.S. legal process. However, she was overridden at an appeals level, and when Goss sought U.S. Supreme Court review, the U.S. Solicitor General opposed Goss and the court refused the case.

This is preposterous. U.S. trade and State Department representatives should be demanding that Japan revoke its "clawback" outrage.

But we won't hold our breath waiting. U.S. Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu have been frustrated thus far in their efforts to help Goss. There seems to be little interest, from either political party or from the Washington bureaucracy, in putting teeth in the "fair" part of "free and fair trade."

The Union Leader Corp. has a Goss-made inserting machine, produced right here in New Hampshire. It is why we can attest to Goss President Bob Brown's statement that his American workers (some 800 in N.H.) can stack up against any foreign competition. But that is only if the competitive rules are actually enforced.