Hardwood plywood producers seek import investigation

Four members of the Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood have petitioned the Commerce Department to investigate imports of Chinese hardwood plywood with face and back veneers for dumping and countervailable subsidies.    A group of four U.S. hardwood plywood producers, which are members of the Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood, have petitioned the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate imports of Chinese hardwood plywood with face and back veneers of softwood for alleged dumping and countervailable subsidies.
   Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells its products in the United States at less than fair value, while countervailable subsidies are generally paid by foreign governments to companies based on their export performance or use of domestic materials over imports.
   The petition by the coalition members – Columbia Forest Products, Commonwealth Plywood, States Industries  and Timber Products Co. – follows Jan. 4 antidumping and countervailing orders by Commerce on hardwood plywood imports from China and a unanimous finding by the U.S. International Trade Commission that the domestic industry is harmed by these unfairly traded imports. The final antidumping margin is 183.36 percent for all Chinese companies and the final countervailing subsidy rates range from 22.98 to 194.90 percent.
   However, the coalition said that even before the Commerce orders were issued, Chinese plywood producers were looking for ways to circumvent the antidumping and countervailing duties by altering their products.
   “Such blatant attempts to evade the orders are depriving the domestic industry of the full extent of the trade relief it deserves,” said Tim Brightbill of Wiley Rein, the law firm representing the coalition’s petition. “We ask the Department of Commerce to quickly initiate an inquiry and put an end to these attempts to continue to push unfairly traded hardwood plywood products into the U.S. market by circumventing the trade orders.”