Petition Seeks Safeguard Quotas, Tariffs on Quartz Surface Products
Three domestic manufacturers filed a petition Sept. 15 asking the International Trade Commission to conduct a Section 201 safeguard investigation on imports of quartz surface products.
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The Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America, consisting of Cambria Company LLC, Dal-Tile LLC, Guidoni USA and Architectural Surfaces, Inc., seeks a quota system and a 50% ad valorem tariff for imports of quartz surface products. Should an ad valorem tariff not be imposed, the alliance requests a "specific tariff applied to the weight" of the merchandise "at an appropriate rate to address the injurious behavior of imports."
The alliance says antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders imposed on quartz surface products from Turkey, India and China in 2019 and 2020 (see 2006190032 and 1907100035) "have not prevented serious injury to the domestic industry from an onslaught of imports from countries across the globe.” It said that a substantial volume enters the U.S. through transshipment, and singled out Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam as evaders.
“The cumulative impact of this relentless influx of imports has seriously injured the domestic industry -- mothballing two U.S. production facilities since the imposition of the AD and CVD orders on imports from China, India, and Turkey. This is the exact type of situation that compels the provision of safeguard relief,” the petition said.
The scope of the safeguard investigations proposed by the petition is the same as the scopes of the existing AD/CVD orders covering quartz surface products, except that the petitioner “has removed the exclusion for 'crushed glass surface products' that was carved out of the scope of the AD and CVD orders.” Quarried stone surface products, such as granite, marble, soapstone or quartzlite are excluded from the scope, the petition said. Quartz surface products are covered under tariff schedule subheadings 6810.99.0020, 6810.99.0040 and 7020.00.6000, the petition said.
The alliance said that the remedy should encompass both slabs and prefabricated quartz surface products that have been cut to size offshore before being imported, and that "based on current trends," if the safeguard remedy does not encompass prefabricated product, "U.S. fabricators will be wiped out"
The petition requested that any remedy should last at least four years, “with the option to extend such relief for as long as eight years,” the legal maximum for safeguard duties.
The ITC now will consider the petition, and must make an injury finding within 150 days (i.e., by the end of February), and must submit a report that also includes a remedy recommendation to the president within 180 days (i.e., by the end of March). The president then has 60 days after that to impose any safeguards or take other action.