Whens, whys, hows of duties
By Powell Slaughter and Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 12, 2004
High Point — As the antidumping investigation of Chinese wood bedroom furniture moves to China itself, questions abound regarding the case's immediate and long-term implications.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Commerce fielded questions from Furniture/Today on how importers, manufacturers and retailers can expect the investigation to play out.
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When is a final determination due?
The final determination from the International Trade Administration of the DOC is due Nov. 5. If the ITA determines dumping is taking place, a final determination of injury is due Dec. 20 from the DOC. If both rulings are in the affirmative, an order on final duties will be signed Dec. 27. -
Will any Chinese manufacturers beyond the seven mandatory respondents have a chance to request an individual duty rate before the final determination?
No. -
Can any Chinese manufacturers be added to the Section A roster?
No. -
When can Chinese manufacturers appeal an affirmative final determination to the Department of Commerce?
One year after the signature of order, or in December 2005, a manufacturer can request an administrative review. The DOC would investigate the company using information covering a more recent time period than that of the current investigation, which covers a six-month span in 2003. The administrative review would take 12 to 18 months. -
Do Chinese manufacturers have an opportunity to appeal any duties earlier?
Not with the U.S. agencies. Individual Chinese manufacturers can appeal immediately to the Court of International Trade and China can appeal as a nation to the World Trade Organization. There is very little chance, however, of those appeals leading to a temporary restraining order on collecting duties. The U.S. manufacturers who petitioned for the investigation also can appeal the final determination with the Court of International Trade if they disagree with it. -
Who pays the duties?
The importer of record. -
What happens to duties that are collected now?
U.S. Customs requires the importer of record to post a cash deposit or bond at the rate assigned to each of its Chinese sources for wood bedroom furniture. If the DOC finds no dumping in its final determination, that money is returned.
If the DOC finds dumping, and the manufacturer doesn't request a review on the one-year anniversary of the signature of order, the money collected related to that manufacturer is released for distribution among the petitioners under the provisions of the Byrd Amendment. Duties going forward from that point also will be released.
If the manufacturer requests a review of its rate, importers sourcing from the manufacturer would have to continue paying cash deposits or bonds. But those monies wouldn't be distributed to petitioners until the DOC review went against the manufacturer. If the manufacturer got a favorable ruling, the money would be returned to the importer of record. -
When would duties be distributed to petitioners under the Byrd Amendment?
December 2005 at the earliest, and then only for duties assigned to Chinese manufacturers who don't request an administrative review. With the review process taking 12 to 18 months, duties most likely would not be available for distribution to petitioners until December 2006 or later. -
Are the final dumping duties expected in December likely to go up or down from the preliminary duties?
Some members of the retailer group fighting the petition have said they expect them to go down, while an attorney for the petitioners said he expects them to go much higher. Both sides may be letting optimism color their projections.
According to the International Trade Administration, in the last 10 antidumping cases with final rulings against Chinese industry, final duties were raised five times and lowered five times from the preliminary rulings. The final rulings were made from June 2003 through this month.
The changes ranged from minor to dramatic.
In one case involving iron pipe fittings, dumping margins for one Chinese company declined more than 128 percentage points to about 16%, while another company saw its rate decrease just over two points to 11.3%. The all-China rate in the case decreased 35 points to a still-significant 111.4%.
On the flip side, in a case involving polyvinyl alcohol imports, the investigated Chinese company went from a 0% duty (the case also involved Korea) to 6.9%. And in a case on saccharin imports, one Chinese chemical company had its dumping margin bumped up 174 points to more than 249%. The all-China rate in this case dropped 33 points but was still a prohibitive 329%.
The ITA said antidumping cases vary widely and warned against making predictions based on what has happened with other products.
