Commerce Says Flag Pole Sets Included in China Aluminum Extrusions AD/CV Orders
5 Diamond Promotions’ flag pole sets fall within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968), said the Commerce Department in a final scope ruling. According to Commerce, the sets don’t meet the finished goods kit exclusion because they’re not packaged to include all necessary parts for assembly. The flag pole parts are bundled with packages that contain the other necessary parts on importation, but the individual packages must be opened and the parts repackaged to contain a single full set for the consumer.
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The flag pole sets at issue are made of series 6 aluminum alloy, and are designed so that each section is to be connected with the others in the set at certain heights by interlocking dimples. The sets are sold without banners. Similarly-sized sections of the sets are bundled together for importation, and enter as separately bundled packages. Each shipment contains a set number of packages of unassembled sections designed and intended to create a predetermined number of assembled flag poles sets after the packages enter the U.S. The packages are entered together on the same CBP Form 7501.
5 Diamond argued that its flag pole sets meet the aluminum extrusions scope’s exclusion for finished goods kits. It also said that, because of their similarity to explicitly excluded picture frames, it is irrelevant whether the flag pole sets come with banners for the purpose of determining whether they are finished goods.
Commerce found that the flag pole sets do not meet the finished gods kit exclusion because, at the time of importation, single packages do not contain all of the sections necessary to assemble a final finished product. Instead, the packages must be opened, and the parts needed to fully assemble a flag pole must be re-packaged before being sold to the end user so that all of the required sections are included.
Despite finding the flag pole sets outside of scope, Commerce clarified that it did not find the flag pole sets outside of the scope because they didn’t include banners. If Commerce would have found the flag pole sets to be finished goods kits, the agency would have found them to be outside of the scope, it said.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the scope ruling.