Washington—In advance of the preliminary antidumping determination next month, the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity (CAHP), petitioners in the unfair trade investigation of Multilayered Wood Flooring from China, have submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce formal allegations of “targeted dumping” against the three mandatory respondents in this proceeding (Zhejiang Layo Industry Co., the Samling Group, and Zhejiang Yuhua Timber Co). As the dumping margins calculated for most other Chinese producers are calculated on the basis of the margins assigned to these mandatory respondents, the new allegations will impact the majority of imports of the product from China.
“Targeted dumping” refers to a foreign exporter’s sales of the merchandise at a lower price to certain customers in the United States or in certain regions of the country than sales to other customers or in other regions. The allegations, which are based on the questionnaire responses submitted by the named producers, could result in the application of a different methodology for calculating dumping margins which often results in higher dumping rates than would be calculated under the Department’s standard methodology.
Jeff Levin, counsel for the CAHP, stated that “the Coalition has ensured that the targeted dumping allegations are extraordinarily well documented, and based specifically upon the data submitted by the Chinese producers.” Mr. Levin went on to note that “the CAHP will utilize all available means under the Federal regulations which guide these investigations to serve the purpose of this petition, which is to eliminate the unfair trading by Chinese producers that is fracturing the U.S. manufacturing base.”
The preliminary determination in the antidumping portion of this investigation is scheduled to be announced on May 20. Last week, the preliminary determination in the countervailing duty investigation was published in the Federal Register. The CAHP notes that as a result of that determination, imports of multilayered wood flooring from all but two Chinese producers are now subject to a duty deposit requirement and the liquidation of the entries have been suspended by U.S. Customs. Mr. Levin stated that, “in absolute terms, approximately 85% of total MLWF exports to the U.S. from China are now subject to the deposit requirement and suspension of liquidation.” Mr. Levin also noted an overlooked aspect of the preliminary subsidies determination: “the CAHP believes that it is highly important that the Department made a preliminary determination not to grant any of the requests for product exclusions submitted by the Chinese producers and other parties to this investigation, whether that was for ‘unfinished’ MLWF, MLWF with specific types of face plies or cores, or MLWF sold to different market segments.”
For more information on the petition and investigation, visit www.usfloorparity.org.
Editor’s note: FCNews is awaiting response from the named companies and will post comments when they are available.