Mattress Importer Says Burmese Mattress Imports Don't Meet High Standard for 'Critical Circumstances'

A U.S. importer of mattresses from Burma brought an action to the Court of International Trade on Sept. 11 challenging the International Trade Commission’s final results of a critical circumstances review (Pay Less Here v. U.S., CIT # 24-00152).

The review resulted in an affirmative finding that imports of Burmese mattresses constituted critical circumstances -- over the dissent of ITC Commissioner David Johanson, importer Pay Less Here said in its complaint.

In June, the ITC informed the Commerce Department that it had determined U.S. industry was being injured by mattresses from Burma, and held that the remedial effect of an antidumping duty order on the matresses would be undermined seriously unless the duties were applied retroactively to certain mattresses imported after the petition, Pay Less Here said.

But critical circumstances reviews require “a very high standard,” and that standard hasn’t been met in this case, the importer said.

It argued that the “Burmese import volume and inventories that underpinned the Commission’s affirmative critical circumstances determination could not seriously undermine the remedial effect of the” antidumping duty order. It claimed there was “no ‘surge’ of imports” and nothing else that would undermine the order.

It also noted that Burmese mattresses “have a limited shelf life, and therefore could not have been held in inventory for long periods of time.”