China Lined Paper Products: Non-Rigid Case Bound Notebooks Excluded from Scope of AD Order
Book covers do not have to be rigid to meet an antidumping duty order scope exclusion for paper that is case bound through the inclusion of binders board, a spine strip, and cover wrap, said the Commerce Department. So Franklin Mill’s notebooks fall outside of the scope of the AD duty order on lined paper products from China (A-570-901), it said in a final ruling.
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Domestic industry had argued “binders board” is necessarily used in hardcover books. Therefore, only case bound books that are hardcover may include binders board, it said. If Commerce was to find binders board did not only include hardcovers, “importers could easily assert that any cover material, no matter how flimsy, qualifies as binders board,” said the petitioners. “Such an interpretation by the Department could lead to neatbooks (wireless notebooks) and other products, which are clearly subject merchandise, being entered as excluded case bound items.”
While Commerce agreed “that the case bound scope exclusion must be narrowly construed,” it declined to find that binders board must be rigid. “The exclusion criteria of the scope do not specify that the binders board is limited to books with hard covers,” it said. Information on bookbinding placed on the record also indicates that binders board does not have to be rigid, it said.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of this scope ruling.