China Wood Flooring: Alston's Single Veneer Flooring Outside Scope of AD/CV Orders
Alston’s “two-ply hybrid solid flooring system” is outside of the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on multilayered wood flooring from China (A-570-970 / C-570-971), said the International Trade Administration is a final scope ruling. The flooring did not meet the scope language requirements for multiple layers, or “plies,” of veneers, the ITA found.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Alston, an importer of wood flooring, requested the scope ruling on its wood flooring consisting of a solid wood base constructed from small solid wood pieces, and a top layer of thick veneer. According to Alston, the product shouldn’t be in scope, because the first sentence of the scope identifies subject merchandise as “composed of an assembly of two or more layers or plies of wood veneer(s) in combination with a core.” Alston’s flooring only has one layer of veneer, nor does it have a core.
Domestic petitioners argued that the product should be included within the scope because the product has a core and a veneer, and in any case may be an unfinished product imported to add more layers of veneers before final sale.
The ITA rejected both of petitioners’ arguments. The merchandise clearly only has one layer of veneer, in contrast with the scope language which requires “two or more,” the ITA said. The ITA said examining whether the flooring is a product for final sale is inappropriate during a scope ruling, finding that any such allegation would be better addressed in an anticircumvention inquiry.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of this scope ruling.