WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced an affirmative preliminary determination in the antidumping duty investigation of imports of wooden cabinets, vanities, and components from China, finding that exporters from China have dumped wooden cabinets in the United States at margins ranging from 4.49 to 262.18 percent.
As a result of the October 3 decision, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of wooden cabinets from China based on these preliminary rates.
In 2018, imports of wooden cabinets from China were valued at an estimated $4.4 billion.
The petitioner is the American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance.
Commerce assigned a preliminary dumping rate of 4.49 percent, 262.18 percent, and 80.96 percent to mandatory respondents The Ancientree Cabinet Co., Ltd., Dalian Meisen Woodworking Co., Ltd., and Rizhao Foremost Woodwork Manufacturing Company Ltd., respectively.
Commerce established a preliminary dumping margin of 39.25 percent for the non-selected respondents eligible for a separate rate, and a preliminary dumping margin of 262.18 percent for all other producers/exporters in China that are part of the China-wide entity, based on adverse facts available.
The strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump Administration. Since the beginning of the current administration, Commerce has initiated 182 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations. That’s a 231 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous administration.
Antidumping and countervailing duty laws provide American businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of the unfair pricing of imports into the United States. Commerce currently maintains 496 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.
Commerce is scheduled to announce the final determination on or about February 17, 2020.
If Commerce’s final determination is affirmative, the U.S. International Trade Commission will be scheduled to make its final injury determination on or about March 30, 2020.
If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination of dumping, and the ITC makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue an AD order. If Commerce makes a negative final determination of dumping, or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Enforcement and Compliance unit within the International Trade Administration is responsible for vigorously enforcing U.S. trade law and does so through an impartial, transparent process that abides by international law and is based on factual evidence provided on the record.
Foreign companies that price their products in the U.S. market below the cost of production or below prices in their home markets are subject to antidumping duties. Companies that receive unfair subsidies from their governments, such as grants, loans, equity infusions, tax breaks, or production inputs, are subject to countervailing duties aimed at directly countering those subsidies.
By Karl D. Forth from WOODWORKING NETWORK