Commerce sets steep preliminary duties on Chinese-made cabinets
- Domestic producers say they are being driven out of business by unfairly subsidised imports from China, putting more than 250,000 American jobs at risk
- US imported US$4.4 billion worth of wooden cabinets, vanities and related components from China last year
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Doug Palmer on politico.com on August 6, 2019.
The US Commerce Department announced on Tuesday preliminary countervailing duties of about 230 per cent on two Chinese companies that export kitchen cabinets and bath vanities to the United States in one of the biggest trade remedy cases in years.
Domestic producers filed a request for import protection earlier this year. They said they were being driven out of business by unfairly subsidised imports from China, putting more than 250,000 American jobs at risk.
The case covers wooden cabinets, vanities and related components. The United States imported US$4.4 billion of the product from China in 2018, up sharply from US$3.6 billion two years earlier.
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The Commerce Department set preliminary duties of 230 per cent on two suppliers, Henan AiDiJia Furniture and Deway International Trade, and preliminary duties of roughly 11 to 22 per cent on other suppliers.
Department officials will announce final countervailing duty rates in December. That will set the stage for the US International Trade Commission to vote in January on whether to approve the duties or not.
In the meantime, US customs officials will collect cash deposits from the imports based on the preliminary rates.
