Industry Coalition to Oppose “Safeguard” Action
WASHINGTON – A broad-based coalition of hard-surface industry professionals are organizing to oppose the possible federal “safeguard” action that could severely limit imports of quartz surfaces.
Save Quartz Jobs, in a launch announcement Dec. 17, noted that its mission is “protecting American jobs and ensuring continued access to affordable quartz surfaces.”
The group, which claims more than 1,000 U.S. fabricators, installers, distributors, and suppliers, is a response to the Section 201 petition filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) last fall by U.S. surface manufacturers Cambria Company, Dal-Tile, and Guidoni USA as the Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America.
The petition, also known as a “safeguard action,” alleges material harm to U.S. manufacturers due to imports, and suggests a solution of a 50% tariff and a country-by-country quota system. If granted by the USITC and approved by President Donald Trump, the action would be in place for up to four years, with a possible four-year renewal.
“If imposed by the president, these restrictions would dramatically increase material costs for U.S. fabricators and installers, destabilize supply chains, and further strain an American housing market,” according to the Save Quartz Jobs launch announcement.
“The U.S. quartz industry is an American success story built by small and family-owned American businesses,” said Rupesh Shah, co-CEO of M S International (MSI). “That success is now at risk because tariffs and global quotas would drive up costs overnight, threatening the viability of local businesses and jeopardizing more than 100,000 American jobs across all 50 states, most of them in manufacturing.”
MSI is a continent-wide distributor and importer of hard surfaces. It is also partner in a U.S. quartz-surface manufacturing plant that is not part of the QMAA.
The petition “does not represent the interests of the thousands of U.S. fabricators of quartz in the United States and their approximately 100,000 workers across the country,” said Rich Katzmann, former executive director of the Rockheads, a group of 120 fabricator producers. “On the contrary, the relief sought by the Petitioner would be enormously harmful to domestic manufacturers and American jobs.”
The group’s launch announcement also claimed that “U.S. production meets only a fraction of national demand. U.S. fabricators, distributors, installers, and importers across the country are united in opposing these restrictions because they would not protect the industry, they would destabilize it.”
“Safeguard measures exist to help industries facing extraordinary harm — not to help successful global corporations increase their profit margins from serving the high-priced luxury end of the market,” said Jonathan Stoel, Partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP. “Imposing quotas and tariffs now would limit access to affordable materials at the worst possible time. At a moment when housing affordability is already a national crisis, this petition would crush the broader industry serving the middle class.”
Since filing the petition in mid-September, the QMAA filed statements of support with the USITC from several U.S. quartz manufacturers, including LX Hausys America and Hendrix Industries. One of the original members – Architectural Surfaces Group – withdrew from the petition last year; Atlanta-based Hyundai L&C USA, with quartz-manufacturing facilities in London, Ontario, joined the QMAA later in the year.
The USITC, in its Dec. 1 Federal Register notice on the petition, also noted that it received statements of opposition from one quartz manufacturer and “more than 700 entities stating that they were independent fabricators of quartz-surface products that oppose the petition.
The USITC will hold a hearing at its Washington offices on Feb. 24, and will make a determination on injury to U.S. manufacturers by April 1. If the commission agrees with the petition, a second hearing on actions to be taken will be on April 14.
The USITC will forward its recommendation to the president by May 1, who can accept it or craft a different action involving any combination of tariffs, quotas, and trade agreements.
For more information on Save Quartz Jobs, visit www.savequartzjobs.com.