FBI not convinced that Chinese are dumping
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, September 8, 2003
High Point — Furniture Brands International has no plans to join the antidumping petition targeting wood bedroom furniture from China, but that could change if dumping is found to be taking place.
The No. 1 U.S. furniture maker says it remains unconvinced that Chinese producers are engaging in illegal trading. Even if the petitioners succeed, it won't benefit the domestic industry in the long run, the company believes.
"The imposition of tariffs against Chinese products will likely result in little or no change in the current balance between domestic products and imports," said Lynn Chipperfield, FBI's senior vice president and chief administrative officer. "At most, manufacturing will leave China and be redirected to Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, India or other countries.
"At some point, the Department of Commerce or the International Trade Commission will ask Furniture Brands whether or not it supports (the antidumping) effort," he continued. "Should we reach that point, it could mean that a preliminary determination has been made that international trade laws have been violated. In that event, it is likely Furniture Brands will indicate its support. As we have said many times, all trade must be legal. If any illegality has been indicated, we will support any appropriate enforcement effort."
FBI's divisions include several major wood bedroom resources with domestic production: Broyhill, Drexel Heritage, Henredon and Thomasville. Lane sources all case goods offshore.
Chipperfield said FBI believes that many, if not most, of the Chinese manufacturers with whom the company deals are playing by the rules, and that if duties are imposed on wood bedroom from China, FBI will support the efforts of certain manufacturers to seek relief from those duties.
"This is consistent with our belief that these tariffs should be in place to remedy illegality, not to stifle free and fair competition or to adversely affect our honest trading partners," he said.
Chipperfield questioned the Committee for Legal Trade's assertion that employees can force management's hand to support its petition. With the petitioners appearing to already have the support of manufacturers representing at least 50% of domestic wood bedroom capacity, he said a poll of FBI employees wouldn't take place.
"Even if an employee poll were to take place, Commerce treats the position of the workers and the position of management as having equal weight," Chipperfield said. "If management and the employees disagree, Commerce will disregard both sides."
U.S. Department of Commerce rules support that interpretation, saying that if management and workers disagree, the agency would "treat the production of that firm as representing neither support nor opposition to the petition."
FBI said it produces 75% of its goods domestically, although the percentage of domestic case goods is lower. Chipperfield said several of its case goods lines are designed for U.S. production.
"Broyhill, for example, has two very successful collections in its line designed specifically for production in its domestic plants — Attic Heirlooms and Yorkshire Market," he said.
"They aren't conducive to those long production runs (offshore producers) are set up for."
The antidumping petition hasn't altered FBI's earlier-reported exploration of an ownership stake in Chinese factories.
"We're still only in the exploratory stage on that," Chipperfield said. "If we find it is a good idea for all the reasons we were considering before the antidumping effort was begun, we will move forward notwithstanding success or failure of that effort."
