Retail group publishing antidumping ad
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 19, 2004
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT — A group of furniture retailers fighting the antidumping effort is publishing an advertisement aimed at putting pressure on the petitioning manufacturers and perhaps influencing the government's ruling.
The 45-member Furniture Retailers of America began running ads this week in Furniture/Today and other trade publications.
The ad describes how the duties on Chinese bedroom furniture sought by a group of U.S. manufacturers could hurt retail business, and suggests questions retailers should ask the petitioning companies at market this week.
The ad lists 26 U.S. producers who signed the petition and asks, "Why are these companies asking to put their hands in your customers' pockets?"
It suggests asking the manufacturers why "a number of them helped set up the Chinese factories that make these products" and "whether they are seeking duties now only because many of them no longer serve as middlemen (for Chinese-made furniture) earning spreads of up to 40% on sales to U.S. retailers."
The ad also invites retailers and importers to a lunch briefing on the trade case on Thursday, April 22, at noon at Noble's Restaurant in downtown High Point.
Keith Koenig, president of City Furniture, Tamarac, Fla., and a leader in the retail group, said its 45 members represent more than 3,000 stores and nearly 200,000 employees.
"I think there's quite a bit of lack of understanding by some retailers — small, medium and large — and we aim to clarify the issues," he said.
"Most retailers don't know exactly when the duties, if applied, will be enforced. Most retailers don't understand that each of the seven large Chinese manufacturers that are having the full-scale analysis can get a different tariff. They don't understand that others will get the average of those duties," Koenig said.
"Retailers don't know when bonds will have to be posted and when cash will have to be paid," he said. "And most retailers are shocked to learn that the petitioning … manufacturers stand to receive all of the duties. Millions of millions of dollars could go directly to them under the Byrd Amendment."
Leaders for the petitioning domestic manufacturers have repeatedly said the Byrd provision in U.S. trade law is a nonissue for the group and wouldn't influence their efforts. Vaughan-Bassett President and CEO John Basset has said there's a move within the World Trade Organization to eliminate it.
But Koenig contended that a handful of the petitioners are promotional companies and "know China is no threat to them. Their product could not be made and shipped into the United States competitively from China. Many of us fear their motivation is gaining Byrd Amendment money."
In December, the U.S. Commerce Department ruled the petition filed by a group of the U.S. manufacturers called the Committee for Legal Trade showed sufficient evidence of dumping and injury to warrant a full investigation. A decision that could lead to preliminary duties is due by June 17.
The retailer group played this up in its ad, which notes, "Starting June 17, your bedrooms could be subject to a variety of massive import duties.
U.S. trade law says the antidumping case is focused on injury to U.S. producers, not retailers. Asked what the retailer group aims to accomplish with the advertising push, Koenig said, "a fair analysis of the law and a fair application of the law." He said the group believes the Department of Commerce's analysis of the issue "can be influenced with a strong outcry from the thousands of retailers it will affect" as opposed to the relative handful of manufacturers who are petitioners.
In aiming to pressure the petitioning manufacturers during the High Point market, Koenig said the group isn't suggesting a boycott. But some in the retail group — including American Furniture Warehouse, Rooms To Go and American Signature — have said they will not buy from the petitioners.
"We want retailers to know at market who the petitioners are, and we also want them to know the many great domestic manufacturers that aren't petitioners and don't support the petition, including Furniture Brands International, Ashley and a host of other companies that have learned to succeed … in a new global economy," Koenig said.
