Cabinets and Vanities Made of Reed Composite Subject to AD/CVD, Commerce Says

The antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China covers cabinets and vanities made from phragmites, a type of reed, the Commerce Department said in a Jan. 12 scope ruling that found merchandise exported by Nanjing Kayling subject to AD/CVD.

Kayling argued the order shouldn't cover its products because they aren't made from wood but rather from a composite that includes phragmites, making them composed of “a vegetable combined with a plastic.” Petitioners said the scope order covers products made from engineered wood, such as particleboard or fiberboard, but Commerce said that was not explicit in the order's language.

“Because the scope language does not clearly state whether engineered wood products would include cabinets and vanities made from fibers and particles other than wood, we performed an analysis under 19 CFR 351.225(k)(1)(ii) and examined secondary interpretive sources including explanatory notes" to the tariff schedule, Commerce said.

The department said it found that articles made of bamboo or other “materials of a woody nature” were classified as wood articles by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and the World Customs Organization. Commerce also said CBP had earlier considered engineered wood made of straw and sorghum to be wood articles.

Commerce said Kayling’s products couldn't be considered “simple vegetable products,” as the exporter argued, noting they had “undergone sufficient additional processing.”

“Even though phragmite is not wood, it undergoes a manufacturing process that is very similar to the process used to make particle boards, resulting in the production of phragmite particle board, a ligneous board of a woody nature,” the department said.