Standard files suit to get antidumping money

WASHINGTON — Case goods manufacturer and importer Standard Furniture has filed suit to claim a portion of the


U.S. antidumping duties collected on Chinese-made wood bedroom furniture.
It becomes the second company, along with Furniture Brands International, to file such a claim after initially opposing the antidumping petition three years ago.
In a suit filed against the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. International Trade Commission in the Court of International Trade on Jan. 31, Standard said it has been adversely affected by the ITC’s refusal to include it on a list “affected domestic producers” and its refusal to grant it a portion of the $31.84 million in duties collected in 2016.
Furniture Brands International filed a similar suit on Jan. 23. Duties collected on imports are distributed to affected producers under the federal Byrd Amendment.
The current statute identifies “affected domestic producers” as the petitioners that supported an antidumping investigation. But both suits argue that it is unfair to grant monies only to petitioners who supported the original antidumping investigation, which largely took place in 2004.
Standard said it asked to be included in a list of affected domestic producers on Nov. 2 and again on Dec. 13 of 2016. The ITC denied Standard’s request to be on the list of affected domestic producers on Jan. 23.
Like Furniture Brands, Standard bases its legal arguments partly on other ongoing cases in the crayfish and ball bearings industries, which challenge the ITC’s distribution of Byrd monies only to antidumping petitioners.
In the ball bearings case, the court determined that the requirement for a domestic company to have supported the petition to be unconstitutional — but that ruling is expected to be appealed, according to legal experts.
According to the Standard lawsuit, Customs decided not to issue any of the 2016 disbursements to Standard, saying the company’s eligibility to receive funds would depend on the outcome of pending litigation. Customs never identified the pending litigation, which is holding up nearly $10 million of the $31.84 million in Byrd monies Customs said was available for distribution in 2016.
Standard’s suit asks Customs to provide the company a pro rata portion of the assessed antidumping duties available in the 2016 fiscal year, which represent duties collected from June 2004 to Dec. 31, 2016.
A Standard spokesperson said the company was declining comment on the matter, given the complexity of the issue.