Lawyers for the federal government filed a motion in trade court Nov. 9 that defends the determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission that imports of wood moulding and millwork products from China are hurting domestic manufacturers, Law360 reports.
According to the legal Website, the federal government urged the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) to toss Jeld-Wen Inc.'s protest of a February ITC ruling that led Commerce to impose average anti-dumping duties of 45% and average subsidy duties of 20%.
Jeld-Wen, an importer and manufacturer with U.S. offices in Charlotte, North Carolina, had argued that the trade commission mistakenly conflated laminated veneered lumber with wood moulding and millwork products when defining the scope of the investigation. Jeld-Wen brought a challenge to the CIT in an effort to free imports of laminated veneered lumber from the levies stating that this laminated product differed from other wood moulding products.
Federal lawyers, Law360 reported, rebutted this argument saying the company should have brought these arguments to the ITC, and because Jeld-Wen itself treated the two interchangeably. Not only do consumers treat the two comparably, it noted, but Jeld-Wen itself also treated the two as interchangeable.
Jeld-Wen's suit challenges the ITC's final determinations in an investigation brought forth by the Coalition of American Millwork Producers (CAMP), according to a WoodworkingNetwork.com story. The group filed the antidumping petitions on Jan. 8, 2020, claiming "dumped" moulding and millwork products by China, as well as Brazil, resulted in an increased market share of more than 10 percentage points during the period of 2016 through 2019, while the U.S. industry lost 7 to 9 percentage points of market share during the same period. In 2019, imports of wood moldings and millwork products from China were valued at approximately $193 million, while imports from Brazil were valued at approximately $315 million.
On Aug. 12, the DOC issued its preliminary determination that China was selling wood mouldings and millwork at less than fair value during the period of investigation, July 1 through Dec. 31, 2019. However, the department's preliminary findings showed no evidence that products from Brazil were being sold at less than fair value.
CAMP's members are Bright Wood Corp. (Madras, OR), Cascade Wood Products, Inc. (White City, OR), Endura Products, Inc. (Colfax, NC), Sierra Pacific Industries (Red Bluff, CA), Sunset Moulding (Live Oak, CA), Woodgrain Millwork, Inc. (Fruitland, ID), and Yuba River Moulding (Yuba City, CA).