China Quartz-Tariff Challenge Withdrawn

WASHINGTON — At least one of the many legal challenges on quartz-surface tariffs ended earlier this month … and, as a result, the high duties on Chinese-made material will remain in place.

However, several lawsuits remain to challenge last year’s review of quartz tariffs on surfaces from India.

A group of U.S. importers, including Arizona Tile and M S International, ended its fight on May 15 at the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Federal Circuit to review the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) imposition of the 300%-plus tariffs in 2019.

The importers disputed the USITC’s decision to not recognize U.S. fabricators as manufacturers of quartz surfaces. The move would’ve undercut the original unfair-trade petition by Cambria Company LLC; federal. law requires that more than half of U.S. producers support the complaint.

The U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled in 2021 that the scope of manufacturers in the tariff action didn’t include fabricators. Importers filed a challenge to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Federal Circuit, but everyone involved with the action agreed on May 15 to dismiss the complaint.

Meanwhile, legal arguments on the review of tariffs on quartz surfaces from India will likely continue into next year. Ironically, all the parties involved in various lawsuits want the same action, but with different results.

At least four different actions are asking the CIT to send the review back to the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA). The federal agency, in its initial decision on the review last June, placed a tariff of 323.3 % on products from the Antique Group, one of India’s largest exporters. Nearly every other Indian producer and exporter faced a 161.5% tariff as part of a procedural averaging.

The ITA pulled back from that earlier this year by reaffirming the high tariff on the Antique Group, but replaced a previous levy of 3.19% on all other India quartz surfaces except for Pokarna Engineered Stone Ltd. (producers of Quantra). The ITA previously determined the company shouldn’t face the tariff at all, as it didn’t meet market anti-dumping criteria.

The Antique Group is asking for the review to go back to the ITA, claiming the agency didn’t treat them fairly in the review process in a dispute concerning document-filing deadlines. Other producers and importers/exporters want the ITA to adjust tariffs to an even lower rate using a formula that’s standard in determining overall levies. And, Cambria is asking for the whole process to go back to the ITA to basically bring back the higher June 2022 tariffs.

The CIT will consider all the cases simultaneously, but the current docket court doesn’t call for oral arguments on the case until December, pushing any adjudicated decision into 2024.