U.S. Producers Of Bedroom Furniture Announce Plans To File Antidumping Petition Against Imports From China

Furniture World Magazine

A coalition of U.S. manufacturers of wood bedroom furniture announced today that they intend to file an antidumping petition this fall with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”). The group -- called the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade (or the “Committee for Legal Trade”) -- will target imports from China of wood bedroom furniture. If the petition is successful, bedroom furniture imported from China would become subject to antidumping duties. “The future of the domestic furniture industry is at stake,” said Paul Broyhill, former President and CEO of Broyhill Furniture Company and one of the spokesmen for the Committee for Legal Trade. “If nothing is done, more factories in the United States will close and more jobs will be lost in the U.S. and shifted overseas.” In the last three years, numerous furniture factories have been closed across the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the wood furniture manufacturing industry has lost 34,700 workers in the last two and one-half years. Its statistics indicate the wood furniture manufacturing industry had 129,700 workers in 2000 and just 95,000 workers in May of 2003, a loss of 27 percent of the industry’s workers. International and U.S. trade law requires that an antidumping petition be supported by companies that represent at least 25 percent of domestic wood bedroom furniture production. If a company’s management fails to support the petition, a majority of that company’s employees can provide the required support by voting in favor of the petition. The Committee for Legal Trade indicates that it has already garnered support from companies that account for over 25 percent of domestic production. Early supporters of the petition include Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company, Vaughan Furniture Company, Keller Manufacturing Company, Bassett Furniture Industries, Vermont Tubbs, Inc., Michels-Pilliod Furniture Company, Stickley Furniture Company, Webb Furniture Enterprises, Cresent Manufacturing Company, Sandberg Furniture Manufacturing Company, Hooker Furniture Corporation, Moosehead Manufacturing Company, Copeland Furniture Company, and Hart Furniture Company. “We already have 14 companies from all parts of the United States as members of our coalition,” said John Bassett, President and CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company and the other spokesman for the Committee for Legal Trade. “It is heartening to know how broad and deep our support is. And we welcome other manufacturers to join our coalition. With each additional company’s support, our petition grows stronger,” he added. Companies and workers interested in joining the coalition or learning more about the petition should contact John Bassett at his office at Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company in Galax, Virginia, or Joe Dorn of the law firm King & Spalding LLP, in Washington, DC. The 14 supporters of the petition come from a geographic cross-section of the United States and cover virtually all price points within the bedroom industry. Vermont Tubbs, Stickley, Moosehead, and Copeland are based in the Northeast. Vaughan-Bassett, Vaughan, Webb, Bassett, Hooker, Cresent, and Hart are all based in the South. Keller is in the Midwest, while Michels-Pilliod and Sandberg are based in California. The petition will be filed by Joe Dorn, the committee’s legal counsel. In July, Dorn presented a group of U.S. manufacturers with a report that evaluated whether China was guilty of illegally dumping furniture in the United States market. Following his report back to the industry group, the Committee for Legal Trade was formed, and the decision to fight illegal imports was made. According to Joe Dorn, “our study indicated that there is a strong case to be made that China is illegally dumping bedroom furniture into the U.S. market. We have also found substantial data indicating that domestic producers of bedroom furniture have been injured by the illegal dumping from China,” he added. Dorn said that once a petition has been filed, the ITC will immediately commence a preliminary investigation to determine whether “there is a reasonable indication that the domestic industry is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by reason of dumped imports from China.” The ITC is required to make a preliminary determination within 45 days. If the ITC’s preliminary determination is affirmative, the Department of Commerce will proceed to determine the margin of dumping and the corresponding level of duties that would be applied to U.S. imports of bedroom furniture from China. Antidumping duties, if imposed, would be paid by the U.S. importers of record. The duties would be set at the amount required to offset the margin of dumping and to restore fair competition to the market.