57% of orders left in place after sunset review
Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, November 24, 2010
The new Ava bedroom by Hooker Furniture is made in China and has a creamy white rubthrough finish with a feathered scroll motif. Such hand-applied details, along with the shaping and turnings found in the headboard and footboard, are typical features of Chinese-made bedrooms. The queen bed retails at $899.
HIGH POINT - Antidumping orders have a pretty good shot of surviving a sunset review, the official investigation of whether they should continue after their first five years.
"We collect data on the industry's condition and one could surmise or see if the industry is vulnerable to injury or not.... It is somewhat of a subjective judgment." George Deyman, International Trade Commision
According to the International Trade Commission, just over 57% of the 671 antidumping orders the U.S. agency reviewed from 1998 to 2007 were left in place for another five years.
But you can't assume those odds will apply to the Chinese wood bedroom furniture case, which is up for review now. The ITC will determine later this year, after reviewing information from a variety of interests, whether antidumping duties will continue to counteract what the government determined in 2004 was unfairly priced Chinese-made bedroom furniture.
"Each case is different and the facts are different," said George Deyman, a supervisory investigator with the ITC. "The commission will weigh the facts in the wooden bedroom furniture case as it sees them. The historical data on sunset review cases are not really relevant in one case's outcome."
This case has moved to the ITC for review because the U.S. Department of Commerce has said there would likely be continued dumping of furniture into the U.S. market if the order were revoked. Since 2004, the DOC has assigned duties to Chinese bedroom producers, paid by importers of record, to help level the playing field for U.S. manufacturers that have been injured due to unfairly priced imports.
The DOC's determination carries significant weight in the ITC's review. However, the ITC will independently consider to what extent the domestic industry would likely suffer as a result of continued dumping.
"They look toward the future," Deyman said of the ITC commissioners' role in the process. "We collect data on the industry's condition and one could surmise or see if the industry is vulnerable to injury or not.... It is somewhat of a subjective judgment. The statute gives commissioners guidance in terms of what they should look at."
The ITC will hold a hearing on the matter in Washington on Oct. 5. Commissioners are not expected to make a decision in the case until later in the year.
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