Canada to impose import duties on Chinese innersprings

Tribunal says mattress components are being dumped

Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, November 25, 2009

OTTAWA — Chinese-made mattress innerspring units are being dumped into the Canadian market and will be subject to antidumping duties, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal has determined.

However, the duty amount - which is usually imposed as a percentage of the selling cost - wasn't announced.

CITT said it will issue the reasons for its finding on Dec. 9. The ruling suggests the tribunal believes that the imported components are doing harm to the domestic injury, and are selling at below-market prices.

Once imposed, the duties will be collected by the Canada Border Services Agency, which launched an investigation into the import of China-made mattress innersprings, with our without edge guards, this past spring in response to a complaint by Globe Spring & Cushion of Toronto, a division of Leggett & Platt.

"The complainant alleges that the dumping of the goods in question is harming Canadian production by causing lost sales; price erosion and suppression; a decline in revenues, gross margins and net profit; and reduced employment and market share," the CBSA said in a statement at the time.

The agency said that dumping occurs when goods are sold in Canada at prices that are either less than those charged in the exporter's domestic market or at unprofitable levels.

The CBSA noted that Globe Spring is the only Canada-based supplier of innerspring units to mattress manufacturers, although its complaint was supported by Simmons Canada and Marshall Mattress, both of which make their own springs.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal held a hearing last month in Ottawa during which a number of Canadian mattress producers gave verbal and written testimony.

The tribunal is an independent, quasi-judicial body that adjudicates a variety of issues relating to trade.

In early 2008, Globe Spring's parent company, Leggett & Platt, filed a similar complaint before the International Trade Tribunal in the United States, which subsequently imposed antidumping duties on innersprings from China, Vietnam and South Africa.