Sleep products and accessories manufacturer Classic Brands has expressed ‘strong’ disagreement to the US Department of Commerce’s (DOC) decision on antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations.
On 31 March this year, a group of petitioners filed the AD lawsuit against several mattress importers. The group includes domestic mattress and mattress component manufacturers.
The department has decided to commence investigations associated with the import of mattresses from eight countries. The imported mattresses are from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam.
In a statement, Classic Brands said: “We are disappointed that the department has elected to initiate these investigations without first polling the domestic industry, as required by law.
“Because the petitioners have failed to demonstrate that more than 50% of the domestic industry supports the petition, it is Classic’s position that the department should have determined whether the statutory thresholds for industry support were met by polling the industry, prior to initiating the investigations.
“As Classic argued before the department prior to initiation, the petitioners’ methodology for calculating industry support, which relied on production figures for only 29 US producers – significantly less than the 347 producers identified in the petition – was flawed, and an inappropriate basis for gauging the level of support of the domestic industry.
The company will also continue taking advantage of all legal options to defend its position.
Other retailers involved in the investigations have also expressed disappointment and hope the antidumping supporters to pull the petition.
