The International Trade Commission (ITC) voted today to affirm the petition on punitive antidumping duties on engineered flooring from China. The vote was 4 - 2 for the petition.

Comments on the decision are expected to be released on Nov. 22, which will explain the basis for the Commission’s decision. Most observers expect the decision to appear in the Federal Registrar sometime after Nov. 27. Retroactive liability will be enforced on any imports that enter the country after that date. Respondents will have until Dec. 22 to choose to appeal the decision.

Jonathan Train, Alliance for Free Choice and Jobs in Flooring (AFCJF) president, stated, “Of course we are all very disappointed that the ITC failed to recognize fundamental flaws in the petitioners’ case. ... We see this as a failure of the system rather than any validation of the petitioners’ claims. We eagerly await our chance to review the commentary and will decide then if we wish to appeal the decision with the higher courts.

“We feel that no matter what the final results are in this case, the work by the Alliance has benefited the industry this past year and I am extremely proud of our organization and all our membership. The fact alone that we were able to achieve low duty rates at both the preliminary and final rulings has minimized the disturbance to the industry. This gives all importers breathing room to organize their long term supply,” he added.

The Alliance will be hosting several phone calls over the next month for their primary membership to discuss how a dumping order is enforced, covering the details of retroactive liability, the review system, future rate changes, circumvention issues and other factors that importers will need to understand to conduct business smoothly under the order.