Antidumping debate resurfaces with 2010 Sunset Review

A well paid Chinese worker gets $200 American per month and gets one in 30 days off. AND they LOVE the opportunity to work. Most are not this well paid. Anti dumping/tarrifs etc won't happen enough to make much of a difference because China won't allow it. Since they are quickly becoming our bank/owners/bosses/your daddy they run things. We did this to ourselves. DO THE MATH. American's making anything against the Chinese loses big time.

"All you have to do is open your eyes." - To bad Irwin could not learn that!!!

American manufacturers had it so good for so long that they lost their ability to adapt and be innovative with their products and sales methodology. There are no creative entrepreneurial mentalities left to see the great advantages that are sitting right in front of their noses at this very moment. The opportunity for US reinvention of manufacturing and retailing is here now---today---this very moment. But the Bubba mentality, whether it be Southern, Northern, Eastern or Western is rampantly against changing the industry genetically. Antidumping duties were simply a meaningless political concession to North Carolina senatorial pressure. They did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the pink slipped workers or the unimaginative thinking of the executive management which controlled the manufacturers. It is time for Yankee ingenuity to return. Until that happens we will keep attending funerals. The answers are standing in front of you. All you have to do is open your eyes.

I am afraid the retailer is correct. The bulk of furniture sold in the US is promotional to mid-price points. If you only have $999 - $1499 to spend for a bedroom or dining room, where are you going to spend it? You are going to shop for the best deal....i.e. overseas furniture. I think the war is lost. The upper-end guys can survive in the US – most of the rest have to go overseas for all wood furniture.

First of all, let me go on record as saying I am not happy about buying containers. However, I am afraid some of you missed the mark – this issue is not who manufactures where, it is where is the middle class American consumer spend their paycheck? Wal-Mart has proven that the middle class is more worried about getting the most for their money than were it is made. Y’all can argue all you want, but the reason for outsources boils down to the Wal-Mart/ Target customers of the world. Yes, I could buy furniture only made in the USA, and the 140 employees I work with will be out of a job because that consumer will stop shopping at my stores and go to the RGT’s of the world.
Consumers mindset needs to change before we can do anything!

One of your readers commented that we can only sell price. Tell that to Stickley. Also tell that to Theo and Alex - They have great looking stuff coming out of VNam and it is expensive. Let's face it, John Bassett had made his living knocking of higher end American manufacturers. So, the Asians starting knocking off the knock off artists. Distribution, Marketing, and Merchandising still work if people will try it.

Tom,
maybe we should outsource your job and get a columnist from china to write your column for furniture today at 1/20th your salary .Oh wait, I know, lets get the readers of the magazine to vote on it, after all its their money! they should have a stake in who writes your column.
Doesn't sound so fair in that light, does it?

to $$$$$$, no actually i am oem supplier to the industry and therefore was not able to be pat of the petitioner group. To "the war is lost" ; not from where we sit. if you are travelling to 3 or 4 countries, thats the price you are paying for working for a company that sold outs its workforce rther than try to innovate at home. I think the folks at the surviving american manufacturers would take serious issue with your notion and would say tough beans to you. Us american made companies need all the help we can get, not more people selling us out for a quick buck, or an easy ride.

I wonder if “US Supplier” is one of those companies getting HUGE checks for doing nothing?

Renewing the bill only forces us to travel to other countries. I would like to see the tariff gone so we can spend more time at home with our families – right now I am traveling to four countries. The war is lost – let those of us who travel only have to travel to one or two countries!

Is it not clear to everyone that the dumping has not only cost thousands of US jobs, ruined lives, but also affected the quality of the general health of the industry? The furniture industry as a whole has never been more fragmented, and generally in weaker shape that in my 25 year experience. We only can sell price, have no brand value, and there is no barrier to entry. If this anti-dumping bill is not renewed, its sends a very clear message to all the US manufaturers still struggling to survive, and its not a good one.

The irony is that one of the main reasons why Michels-Pilliod is out of business is because Irwin Allen joined the petitioners. Irwin put hundreds of workers on the street while he reaped the rewards of the lawsuit. May old age not treat him well.