International Trade Commission plans to release final report on duty rates in December

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Trade Commission will soon start collecting data for its analysis of the antidumping case of Chinese-made wooden bedroom furniture.

The analysis, called the Sunset Review, starts on the fifth anniversary of the imposition of final duty rates in an antidumping case.

In the wood bedroom case, duties were finalized in late 2004 and those rates took effect in January 2005.

Duties such as those attached to Chinese-made wood bedroom aim to limit or reduce the impact of unfairly priced imports on domestic manufacturers of similar goods. The Sunset Review will determine whether there has been ongoing injury to the domestic industry to warrant further duties.

The Department of Commerce has already supported continuing the duties, saying that dumping, or the sale of goods at below market values, will likely continue. The DOC believes the duties should remain in place in order to address such pricing in the future.

As part of its analysis, the ITC has prepared a 30-plus page questionnaire to gather information relating to the wood bedroom furniture case. There are versions of this questionnaire tailored to domestic manufacturers, importers and Chinese producers.

The questionnaires have standard questions the ITC must ask by law in such cases, said George Deyman, a supervisory international trade analyst with the ITC. However, in preparing the form, the ITC also has consulted with interested parties in the case including law firms representing the various segments of the industry. That allows the form to be tailored to the specific investigation.

Interested parties will be sent a copy of the draft form and can comment on that by June 8. The ITC then reviews those comments and decides what types of questions are important enough to include or take out of the form.

"We come up with a questionnaire that we hope is fair to all sides and incorporates everything everyone wants," Deyman said.

The forms then get sent back to a bipartisan group of six ITC commissioners overseeing the review.

After the commissioners OK the questionnaire around the third week of June, the ITC will send it to more than 300 key retailers, importers and Chinese manufacturers as well as petitioners, or domestic manufactures that support the imposition of duties moving forward. Other interested parties can obtain a copy of the questionnaire at the ITC's website, www.itc.gov.

The deadline to return those forms to the ITC is Aug. 5, but ITC officials hope to begin receiving them by late July.

In July and August, the ITC staff reviews the questionnaires and then prepares a report on the facts gathered in the case for the ITC commissioners. That report is due by Sept. 15 and interested parties get to comment on the report by Sept. 24.

The next major event in the process is a public hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 5 at the ITC offices at 500 E Street SW, Washington, D.C. Anyone who wants to speak at that meeting must notify the ITC at least a week in advance, Deyman said.

Post-hearing comments must be submitted to the ITC by various law firms and other interested parties by Oct. 15. The ITC will continue to gather information up to Nov. 10, but law firms can submit final comments by Nov. 16.

The ITC commissioners will review all the information and make a decision regarding the extension of duties around Nov. 30. The commissioners will then issue a final report on that decision by Dec. 14.

That report gets sent to the secretary of commerce and will be posted on the ITC website within a few days.

Key deadlines in the Sunset Review

Start of Review: Dec. 1, 2009
Department of Commerce decision: April 14
Deadline for return of questionnaires: Aug. 5.
Pre-hearing report due: Sept. 15
Pre-hearing briefs due: Sept. 24
ITC hearing in Washington, D.C.: Oct. 5
Post-hearing briefs due: Oct. 15
Final comments due: Nov. 16
Final ITC commissioner vote: Nov. 30