Citing insufficient economic analysis and an incomplete review of the domestic injury, the Court of International Trade (CIT) remanded the antidumping case against Chinese producers of engineered hardwood flooring back to the International Trade Commission (ITC).
The original ITC ruling in 2011 concluded that domestic producers of engineered wood flooring were unable to compete with the low prices government-subsidized Chinese flooring manufacturers were able to offer.
However, the order from the CIT stated "the legal and factual analysis performed by the Commission in this instance misses the mark and thus the conclusion of material injury is not supported by substantial evidence." Specifically, the ITC used too low a standard in determining that the imports cause any injury to the U.S. industry.
The Alliance for Free Choice and Jobs in Flooring (AFCJF), which appealed the ITC's original ruling, is pleased by the decision. "Our Alliance, along with the other respondents, worked very hard to prove the inaccuracy of the petitioners' claims. All the data clearly showed that imported flooring is a benefit to the industry as a whole and has not injured the petitioners, and we are not surprised that the CIT agreed with every issue we raised regarding the original decision," said Jonathan Train, AFCJF president, in a statement.
The ITC will have to use a higher causation standard and consider the greater economic condition in the United States, including the fall of the housing market, on the U.S. industry, according to AFCJF attorney Bill Perry.
New entry rates and the retroactive liquidation rates for entries made over the last year are expected to be announced in summer 2014. Until that time, the duties assigned in the ITC's original ruling will stand. For a majority of Chinese exporters, the antidumping rate is currently 3.31 percent. Mandatory respondents are paying the de minimus rate below 2 percent, and those companies that did not participate in the investigation must pay 26.73 percent.
At the time this article was posted, HF had not received a response from the counsel for the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity, the group that originally leveled the dumping charges in October 2010.
