Movable Shelves Don't Nix 'Assembled' Medicine Cabinet From AD/CVD Exclusion, Commerce Says

Cabinets with moveable shelves installed after importation meet the criteria of a scope exclusion for medicine cabinets from the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China (A-570-106/C-570-107), including that they are assembled at the time of entry, and are not subject to AD/CV duties, the Commerce Department said in a June 11 scope ruling.

The scope of the AD/CVD orders on wooden cabinets and vanities excludes medicine cabinets that meet all of the following five criteria: “(1) wall mounted; (2) assembled at the time of entry into the United States; (3) contain one or more mirrors; (4) be packaged for retail sale at time of entry; and (5) have a maximum depth of seven inches.”

The cabinets, imported by Homewerks, are imported fully assembled, except that the consumer must put pegs into holes inside the cabinets at the desired positions and place shelves on top of the pegs. The cabinets also meet the other four criteria for the scope exclusion, in that they are “wall mounted, contain one or more mirrors, are packaged for retail sale at the time of entry, [and] have a depth of less than seven inches,” the scope ruling said.

Homewerks argued that the term “assembled” in the scope exclusion should be taken to include cabinets ready for installation at the time of importation. Domestic petitioners demurred, saying they “do not necessarily agree with Homewerks’ interpretation of the term 'assembled' in its scope ruling request and would not intend for that interpretation to govern other scope ruling requests,” Commerce said in the ruling. Instead, the petitioners sought a narrower ruling that, for the purposes of the medicine cabinet exclusion, movable shelves don’t disqualify an otherwise qualifying medicine chest.

Commerce found the International Trade Commission’s report from the original investigation supported Homewerks’ interpretation. In that report, the ITC said “that if a wooden cabinet is ready for installation at the time of importation, it is considered to be ‘assembled,’” Commerce said. “This description of an ‘assembled’ cabinet supports our finding … based on the plain language of the scope, that Homewerks’ cabinets are 'assembled' cabinets that meet the criteria of the medicine cabinet exclusion."

Commerce concluded: “With regards to the medicine cabinet exclusion language in the scope of the Orders, movable shelves that are seven inches or less in depth and are not installed at the time of entry, but are included in the package for retail sale in which the medicine cabinet is shipped, do not disqualify an otherwise qualifying medicine cabinet product from the medicine cabinet exclusion.”