DOC assigns preliminary duties for some 2011 China furniture shipments

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, February 7, 2013

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Commerce has assigned preliminary retroactive duties of 41.75% to three Chinese bedroom furniture producers for shipments they made to the U.S. market during the 2011 calendar year.

The companies that have received these rates are Baigou Crafts Factory of Fengkai, Foliot Furniture Inc./Meubles Foliot Inc. and Hualing Furniture(China) Co. Hualing also sells into the market as Tony House Manufacture (China) Co. Ltd, Buysell Investments Ltd. and Tony House Industries Co., Ltd.

The rates were announced this week as part of the DOC's annual administrative review process. This determines whether Chinese producers should be assigned a higher or lower duty rate beyond their initial cash deposit rate for the year.

The antidumping duties are assigned to the factories, but paid by importers of record of wooden bedroom furniture shipments.

The duties, in place since mid-2004, are the government's way of helping domestic bedroom producers compete against unfairly priced imports.

The aforementioned Chinese producers sought separate rate status they believed would give them a lower duty rate. The government will assign final rates when it completes its 2011 review in about four months.

As part of the annual review, several other producers said they did not make any shipments to the U.S. market in 2011. These include Clearwise Co. Ltd., Dongguan Yujia Furniture Co. Ltd., Golden Well International Ltd, Hangzhou Cadman Trading Co. Ltd., Yeh Brothers World Trade Inc. and Zhejiang Tianyi Scientific and Educational Equipment Co. Ltd. However, the DOC said these companies will still be part of the review and will have their final duties announced upon completion of the review in four months.

Chinese case goods producer Alexandre International Corp. also said it did not ship bedroom to the U.S. market in 2011. However, the DOC said that it had evidence contrary to Alexandre's claim. Therefore, since it did not file an application for a separate rate status, it is being considered part of the China-wide entity that could be subject to a 216% duty.

Others that are subject to this high rate include Billy Wood Industrial (Dongguan) Co. Ltd., Dongying Huanghekou Furniture Industry Co. Ltd. and Sheng Jing Wood Products (Beijing) Co. Ltd.