1 of 2, AFCJF News Release 3-22-2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 22, 2011 CONTACTS: Industry Issues: Jonathan Train, President, AFCJF, president@choiceandjobs.com Legal Counsel: William Perry, Esq., perry.william@dorsey.com
Alliance responds to Commerce Department's preliminary finding on CVD in Multilayered (Engineered) Flooring from China Case Jonathan Train, president of the Alliance for Free Choice and Jobs in Flooring (AFCJF), representing American flooring importers, distributors, retailers and hardwood timber exporters, made the following statement in response to the announcement of preliminary Countervailing Duty (CVD) rates by the US Department of Commerce in the Multilayered (Engineered) Hardwood Flooring from China case now pending at DOC and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC): “Although we hoped for a finding of zero subsidies across the board, consistent with the realities of the Chinese market, we are pleased that at least the Commerce Department determined a subsidy level of only 2.25% for the companies that responded to the Commerce Department’s questionnaire. We hope that the Commerce Department will maintain or even lower these rates at their final determination. We note that Chinese companies that did not reply to the DOC questionnaire were assigned a much higher CVD rate. “The current CVD laws, under which the DOC is forced to operate, tilt the playing field so that it is nearly impossible for the DOC to find zero subsidy. However, we applaud the DOC for its diligence and careful review that allowed a preliminary finding of zero for two of the three mandatory respondents. These finding certainly undermine the overblown allegations of the petitioners that they are injured by overseas subsidies. “Individual American importers will have to assess the business impact of the DOC announcement for themselves. We feel strongly that anything that artificially inflates consumers' and builders' costs, and restricts their range of choice, should be discouraged during these challenging economic times. "We also want to stress that the CVD preliminary finding is only one phase of this investigation. As an industry, we need to be prepared for the Anti-Dumping preliminary decision to be announced the week of May 19th, and afterwards, the final CVD and AD determinations as well as the all-important final ITC decision on injury this fall.
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2 of 2, AFCJF News Release 3-22-2011
“We remain committed to presenting compelling evidence to prove at the ITC Final that the Petition should be dismissed and these punitive duties should be removed. We believe that the petitioning U.S. flooring manufacturers were not materially injured by imports from China but rather have been hurt by the recession and their own business decisions about which flooring products U.S. consumers and builders demanded.�
More information regarding this case is available at www.choiceandjobs.com. For more detailed definitions of many of the technical terms used in ITC cases see www.choiceandjobs.com/terms.html.
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