The U.S. International Trade Commission has released the nonconfidential version of its 3-0 preliminary affirmative injury determination and report in its antidumping investigation of mattresses from the Peoples Republic of China. This document describes the factors that the Commissioners considered relevant in finding a reasonable indication that unfairly traded imports of mattresses from China caused material injury to the U.S. mattress industry.
The staff report summarizes and analyzes the data that the ITC staff collected about the U.S. mattress market in its preliminary investigation from U.S. mattress producers, importers of mattresses from China and other sources. This market information may be useful to members of the International Sleep Products Association.
The next step in this proceeding is for the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate whether and to what extent mattresses imported from China and sold in the United States have been dumped. DOC’s preliminary antidumping determination is currently scheduled to be released in late February 2019, although that deadline may be postponed by several weeks.
If DOC finds that dumping has occurred, it will instruct Customs to collect deposits of antidumping duties on future imports of mattresses from China in an amount equal to the dumping margin. DOC also could instruct Customs to impose the antidumping duties retroactively on goods that entered the United States up to 90 days before its preliminary antidumping determination. The antidumping duties to be collected will be in addition to any regular or other import duties (including Section 301 duties) collected on these imported products.
If DOC subsequently issues a final determination in which it finds that dumping has occurred, the ITC will conduct a final investigation to determine whether the unfairly traded imports are materially injuring the U.S. mattress industry. Depending on the timing of Commerce’s preliminary determination, that injury investigation would likely begin in spring 2019. An ITC final injury investigation will consider the same issues that the Commission analyzed in its preliminary injury determination.
The main difference between a preliminary and final ITC injury investigation is that in a final investigation, the ITC staff has additional time to collect market data and conduct a more thorough analysis of the U.S. industry, whether the industry has been materially injured and whether the unfairly traded imports are a cause of that injury.
