China Wooden Bedroom Furniture: Hospital Bed Headboards & Footboards in-Scope
The International Trade Administration found hospital bed end panel components imported by Medline Industries to be within the scope of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-890). The company requested out-of-scope status for the merchandise because of its intended use in hospitals, and because it's an integral part of metal beds that are explicitly excluded by the scope. The ITA, needing to rely only on the factors enumerated in 19 CFR 351.225(k)(1), said those facts are irrelevant to the question of whether the end panel components are in-scope.
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According to Medline, the products at issue are headboard and footboard components for Medline steel-framed hospital beds. The components are made with an exterior laminate surface of melamine (plastic) over a fiberboard core, plastic edge trimming, and steel structural elements and mounting hardware to mount them to the hospital beds.
Medline argued the products’ use on hospital beds renders them outside the scope of the wooden bedroom furniture order, because hospital beds were not mentioned in the original petition for AD duties. As integral components of these beds, the end panel components should be excluded as well. Also, said Medline, the end panel components are fundamentally different in design, materials, functions, and end use from bedroom furniture. The Food and Drug Administration regulates hospital beds as well as their components, including end panels, it said.
The ITA concluded that the end panel components for hospital beds do fall within the scope of the AD duty order, however. The language of the scope specifically includes wooden headboards and footboards for beds, whether made from wood. or wood products such as fiberboard. The scope only excludes wooden bed components for metal beds if they are not specifically mentioned in the scope. As the scope identifies headboards and footboards, these products do not fall under that exclusion, it said.
Furthermore, said the ITA, the inclusion of wooden bedroom furniture for sale to assisted living facilities was raised in the petition, and other government agencies’ classification of items has no bearing on whether merchandise falls inside or outside of an AD duty order.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of this scope ruling, which is also available on the IAACCESS database here.