Style Limited (Melbourne, Australia) announced this week that its strand-woven Restyle flooring product-which is manufactured in China-will not be subject to the recent government action on engineered wood flooring imported from China. Throughout the investigation, Style took steps to ensure its strand-woven flooring technology-for which it holds two U.S. patents and one trademark-would not be subject to increased taxation if the U.S. International Trade Commission decided domestic engineered flooring manufacturers were being materially injured by the actions of their Chinese counterparts.
Style's efforts paid off. On Oct. 11, Christian Marsh, deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce, issued a memorandum explaining Style's product, "by its very definition … is not subject" to the engineered wood flooring investigation; therefore, it will not be subject to any antidumping or countervailing duty orders moving forward. Specifically, the scope of the engineered wood flooring investigation includes flooring "composed of an assembly of two or more layers or plies of wood veneer(s)," but Style's product "does not utilize a wood face veneer," Marsh wrote.
Style used its existing strand-woven bamboo flooring technology to develop Restyle, and the first Restyle offering will utilize eucalyptus material. The flooring is prefinished using Bona Naturale.
