China Quartz-Trade Contro Spurs Interest
WASHINGTON – The drive to cite China for unfair trade practices in shipping quartz surfaces to the United States drew plenty of attention – and some revisions – before a meeting next week by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC).
A staff conference by the USITC here on May 8 will consider Cambria Company LLC’s petition to set duties on imports of Chinese quartz surfaces, as a group of at least 11 U.S. surface importers filed notices of interest in the case.
And at least one of the companies – M S International Inc. – filed an objection with the government agency, claiming that U.S. quartz manufacturer Cambria has insufficient standing to file the petition.
Cambria’s April 17 action, claiming that Chinese quartz exporters sell materials in the United States at less-than-fair value, asks the USITC to place duty assessments on the country’s quartz-surface exports under “antidumping” provisions in federal law. (“Unfair Trade Practices in Quartz Surfaces Claimed,” Stone Update, April 19.)
In its original petition (and in an April 18 press release), Cambria noted a “dumping margin” of 455.65% on a sample of Chinese quartz products. A supplemental change on April 24, removing molds from the factors of surface production, hiked the overall margin to 570.10%.
However, in an April 30 filing, Cambria lowered its claim to 321.74% after performing an analysis of costs using data from Mexican tile producer Grupo Lamosa as a surrogate for comparison.
Cambria also explained to the USITC that it used its own production data in figuring the possible production rates of other domestic quartz-surfaces factories (LG Hausys in Adairsville, Ga., and Caesarstone in Richmond Hill, Ga.) as part of its legal standing for filing the petition. Cambria noted that it accounted for more than 50% of U.S. quartz-surface production, as it operates five of the nine production lines in the country.
M S International, an Orange, Calif.-based surface importer-distributor, disputed Cambria’s ability to file the action, claiming in a letter to the USITC that the producer didn’t offer enough support by using internal production figures as the sole basis for its more-than-50% claim.
“The Petition simply contends (without factual support) that Cambria’s five (of nine) production lines account for more than 50 percent of the total lines in the United States,” according to M S International’s letter. “This does not meet Petitioner’s burden of establishing support—again, the industry support number generated by the Petitioner in its deficiency response is wholly a function of the fact that Cambria claims to have 5 of the 9 production lines in the United States.
“Given that this argument was found to be deficient by the Department in the original Petition, this same argument is no more valid on the second go-around. In sum, all Petitioner did to address the deficiency was to make its calculation look more complicated.”
M S International also noted Cambria’s definition of quartz-surface products in the petition included those “fabricated or not fabricated.”
“Petitioner has not accounted for the fabricators in any way shape or form, however, in its purported calculation of industry support,” noted M S International’s letter. “On the contrary, Petitioner has entirely ignored the part of the industry that purchases slabs from Cambria and other distributors (or other sources, including China) to manufacture a fabricated product.
“Petitioner certainly possesses information on fabricators, but such data appear to have been ignored to manufacture standing in these proceedings. “
M S International called on the USITC to not investigate Cambria claims in the petition, and to poll the industry – including fabricators – to determine industry support for the action.
M S International had filed with the USITC as an interested party to the petition and subsequent investigation, which allows their legal counsel access to all information filed in the action (including proprietary information not made public). As of May 3, the company had been joined by 10 other U.S. entities:
- Arizona Tile;
- Bruskin International LLC;
- Mstone LLC:
- Polarstone US;
- Reliance Granite and Marble Corp.;
- Stone Showcase;
- Stone Vic-Kedin USA Ltd.;
- Stone Warehouse of Tampa;
- Universal Granite & Marble Inc.; and
- Universal Stone.
The USITC’s staff conference on the petition will be held at 9:30 a.m. on May 8, with postconference briefs to be filed by May 11.
The proposed date for voting on the petition is May 31, with determinations on possible duties issued by June 1.
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