ITC's 6-0 vote clears way for probe of China imports
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, January 11, 2004
WASHINGTON — The International Trade Commission voted 6-0 Friday to make a preliminary determination of injury to U.S. wood bedroom furniture manufacturers from Chinese-made imports.
In finding a reasonable indication of injury or threat of material injury, the ITC vote clears the way for a full investigation by the Department of Commerce into whether Chinese manufacturers are dumping wood bedroom furniture in the U.S. market.
Meanwhile, the ad hoc coalition of retailers fighting the petition has organized more formally as the Furniture Retailers of America. In a press release announcing formation of the 60-plus-member group, William Silverman, FRA counsel and an attorney with Hunton & Williams, called the petition "one of the most cynical trade cases brought before the ITC in recent memory."
The Department of Commerce already had decided in December that the antidumping petition filed last fall by the 27-member American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade merited an investigation, but a finding of no injury at ITC would have ended the matter.
On Jan. 20, ITC commissioners will notify Commerce of the reasoning behind their vote.
If the DOC investigation finds dumping, wood bedroom furniture from China could face preliminary duties by late April. In that case, the ITC would render a final ruling in the fall, and a ruling in favor of the petitioners would result in the imposition of final duties.
The Furniture Retailers of America claims that petitioners won't reopen U.S. plants if they win duties, but are simply relocating their sourcing to countries other than China.
"U.S. jobs will not be saved or returned," said Mike Veitenheimer, FRA spokesman and general counsel for The Bombay Company. "Instead, U.S. consumers will face major disruptions — with price, choices and quality in the short term."
The logic of those arguments is "ridiculous," said Wyatt Bassett, executive vice president of petitioner group member Vaughan-Bassett.
"If all we're doing is moving sourcing to other countries, what's the gain for us — why would we have gone to all this trouble and expense? Our only goal is to bring jobs back to the U.S. and protect the jobs we have," Bassett said.
He said the FRA is "setting this up as retailer versus manufacturer," but many retailers back the petition. "We had over 700 retailers go on record with the ITC in support of what we're doing."
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