Bausch & Lomb Incorporated and Consolidated Subsidiaries - Page 91

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          considers the respective assembly operations of B&L Ireland and             
          B&L Hong Kong to constitute the manufacture or production of sun-           
          glasses.  In this respect, we find the opinions expressed by                
          petitioners' expert Mr. Nieh to be most instructive.   Mr. Nieh             
          was employed by Polaroid in its sunglass business from 1956                 
          through 1988.  In addition to his participating in Polaroid's               
          sunglass business, Mr. Nieh participated in, and served as the              
          president of, the SAA and served on committees of ANSI in areas             
          relating to sunglass standards.                                             
               In his opening report, Mr. Nieh discussed the sunglass in-             
          dustry in general, including the differences between low-end or             
          regular sunglasses and high-end or quality sunglasses.  He                  
          described the importance of "appearance" and "fit" to the con-              
          sumer of quality sunglasses; that is to say, a consumer will not            
          purchase a pair of quality sunglasses that are priced two-to-ten            
          times higher than regular sunglasses unless they meet his or her            
          standards for appearance and fit.  He described the sunglass                
          industry as a "cottage industry" because several levels of manu-            
          facturing, including parts fabrication and final assembly, are              
          necessary to convert raw materials into finished sunglasses.  Al-           
          though Mr. Nieh recognized the importance of each level of manu-            
          facturing, he indicated that the sunglass industry considers the            
          assembler, which he referred to as the finished goods manufac-              
          turer, as the most important stage in the manufacture of quality            





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