Chinese Furniture Dumping

About a year ago, 30 American furniture manufacturers filed a petition with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that alleged Chinese furniture makers were dumping their bedroom furniture into the US market. About six months later, in January 2004, the ITC ruled that Chinese wooden furniture exported to the American market had hurt US furniture manufacturers. The illegal dumping of beds, dressers and nightstands at artificially low prices, the largest complaint ever filed against Chinese goods exported to the US market, was then investigated by the Department of Commerce.

On Friday, a preliminary decision was announced and the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission will start collecting tariffs from Chinese furniture importers as early as November. Import duties will be imposed in three classes on manufacturers, encompassing a total of $1.2 billion of annual imports.

The seven largest Chinese furniture makers will face duties of 4.9 percent to 24.3 percent.

About 80 other Chinese manufacturers will have a 10.9 percent duty imposed.

The remaining Chinese furniture makers, estimated to total about 30,000, will have a 198 percent duty imposed.

This is welcome news to US furniture makers who suffer from a competitive disadvantage to unrestricted Chinese imports. By the end of the year, it is expected that the ripple effect of the tariffs will been seen in noticeably higher prices in stores. For those that have major furniture purchases planned, it may be prudent to fix in a price before the anticipated increase.