On Friday the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) imposed preliminary antidumping duties on certain engineered wood flooring from China. Two of the investigation's "mandatory respondents"—the largest manufacturers by volume that sell engineered wood flooring to U.S. importers—will not have any additional antidumping duties imposed on their goods; those two companies are Zhejiang Layo and Zhejiang Yuhua. A third mandatory respondent, Samling Group, will see an antidumping duty of 10.88 percent. All other companies participating in the investigation-known as "separate rate companies"-will see an antidumping duty of 10.88 percent. Also, DOC has assigned an antidumping duty of 82.65 percent to any other engineered wood flooring manufacturer in China that does not fall into either the mandatory respondent or separate rate categories.
This is just the latest development in the targeted dumping," or selling a product at a lower price to certain customers or in certain regions than they do to other customers; however, even considering this, Zhejiang Layo will not be assigned any additional antidumping duty.
The Alliance for Free Choice and Jobs in Flooring (AFCJF)—a group of engineered wood flooring importers, distributors and dealers—was formed to oppose antidumping and countervailing duties on imported engineered wood flooring from China. After receiving the latest news from DOC, Jonathan Train, the AFCJF's president, said, "I can tell you, all of us are definitely breathing a big sigh of relief." He views the duty rates as confirmation that no substantial injury to U.S. manufacturers has taken place. "When you have two companies at zero, and one at 10 [percent], is there really injury?"
In a press release, the AFCJF said, "The fact that the third mandatory [respondent] received a rate of only 5 percent of what the [CAHP] had originally demanded proves our point that [CAHP's] claims were exaggerated and wildly inaccurate." Originally, the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity (CAHP) alleged engineered wood flooring from China had a dumping margin—the amount by which a product's normal value exceeds the export price—of 237 percent. Furthermore, the AFCJF sees the "all others" antidumping duty of 82.65 percent as insignificant since it says that rate will apply to only about 5 percent of engineered wood flooring imported from China.
In March, DOC imposed a preliminary countervailing duty on engineered wood flooring from China; the majority of imported Chinese wood flooring would be charged an additional 2.25 percent to offset subsidies the Chinese government gives to its domestic engineered wood flooring manufacturers.
At this point, the antidumping and countervailing duties are temporary and could be eliminated in the fall, when DOC is expected to make its final determination in each investigation.
As of press time, the CAHP had not released a response to the DOC's latest ruling.
