One of the mandatory respondents in the ongoing trade investigation involving engineered wood flooring from China has asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to revise the preliminary antidumping duty imposed in late May.
Hong Kong-based Samling Group has alleged that the DOC incorrectly determined the company's 10.88-percent dumping margin, which is paid by the importer of record when Samling's products arrive at U.S. Customs & Border Protection. Specifically, Samling alleged DOC neglected to factor in warranty expenses on certain sales and that it miscalculated factory overhead and freight expenses. By rectifying these three mistakes, Samling says its preliminary dumping margin would effectively be zero, meaning companies importing its products would not have to pay an additional import duty.
According to a DOC employee, DOC will respond to Samling's comments in late June, when the DOC will either uphold its initial preliminary antidumping determination or issue a revised determination. A revised preliminary antidumping determination could affect the rate assigned to 73 "separate rate" exporters also involved in the investigation.
"According to Samling and some of the other legal counsel that we talked to, they feel pretty confident that DOC will accept that error request … and they feel that will give them a de minimis rate, a zero rate," said Jonathan Train, president of the Alliance for Free Choice and Jobs in Flooring (AFCJF).
The alleged errors will most likely add to the uncertainty within the U.S. wood flooring industry. "Many importers were expecting to operate under the 10.88 percent rate for at least four months, and now they are facing more disruption caused by this petition," Train wrote in an AFCJF press release. "This is a new challenge our industry did not need as this country works towards economic recovery."
Article updated June 16 at 10:39 a.m.
