Industry Association Decries AD Duties on Hardwood Plywood from China Despite No Dumping Margins
The Commerce Department’s April 30 decision to impose antidumping duties on imports of hardwood and decorative plywood from China threatens to disrupt supply chains for industries that consume the product, said the International Wood Products Association (here). “While the [IWPA] counts among its members American importers -- many of whom trade in this product -- the effects of these duties will not be confined to the import community,” it said.
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“U.S. industries that rely on a ready supply of hardwood plywood were already reeling from the supply disruptions caused by the countervailing duty rates released in February; these new preliminary antidumping rates will only increase market uncertainty,” IWPA said. Small businesses will struggle to predict costs for project bids or for things like kitchen remodels, it said.
Commerce’s preliminary determination found de minimis AD rates for the two mandatory respondents, and AD rates of 22.14 percent for 101 non-individually reviewed companies, and 63.96% for the “China-wide entity” companies that didn’t demonstrate independence from the state (see 13050117). AD cash deposits will be collected on top of the 22.63 to 27.16 percent CV duty cash deposits already required. The Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood said the AD cash deposit requirement will cover more than 90 percent of total imports of the product from China.
“We are not looking to punish anyone,” said Jeff Levin, counsel for the domestic industry coalition, in a press release (here). “But, the fact remains that unfair trading, especially at the levels now found by the Commerce Department, is a scattering bane which ultimately inflicts every participant in the U.S. market,” he said.
The American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood found fault with Commerce’s preliminary determination, however, noting that the agency imposed the AD duties without finding a single individual respondent had actually dumped (here). “A protectionist campaign initiated by a handful of domestic companies has resulted in U.S. manufacturers being hit with more duties on imported Chinese hardwood plywood even after the U.S. government fond that all individually-investigated exporters did not engage in dumping,” it said.
And despite the de minimis AD rate found for the two individually investigated respondents, the Commerce Department declined to rely on that AD rate for non-individually investigated separate rate companies. “Instead, Commerce used an average that included a penalty duty normally reserved for non-cooperative companies,” it said. “The resulting average duty, 22.14 percent, applies this penalty to U.S. manufacturers’’ purchase of hardwood plywood from these fully cooperative exporters.”