The Price is Right

The clothing importer's application last month was routine. The Chinese firm wanted to bring some bras into Italy. Anything but routine, however, was the size of the shipment and the price at which the firm planned to sell the bras: 10 million of them, wholesaling for just 50 cents a dozen. Italians buy about 40 million bras a year, so the 10 million represents three months of total Italian sales. For Paolo Zegna, that request to the Italian government confirmed his worst fears. "It's predatory pricing," fumes Zegna, president of the Italian textile trade group Sistema Moda Italia and co-chief executive...