WASHINGTON  - Three Chinese wood flooring manufacturers recently won their request to have their antidumping duties reviewed and possibly reduced.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) should review and possibly recalculate duties on imports of multi-layered wood flooring made by Dalian Huade Wood Product Co, Ltd., Linyi Bonn Flooring Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and Zhejiang Fuerjia Wooden Co. Ltd. The ITC's ruling was published in the July 31 Federal Register.

Each of the three flooring makers are among dozens of Chinese makers that are subject to antidumping duties and counterveiling duties for multi-layered wood flooring imported to the U.S. Zhenjiang faced an antidumping duty of nearly 4%. Most of the companies, though, are subject to a 3.3% antidumping duty. Chinese companies not named in the ITC's antidumping final determination published in the Dec. 8, 2012 Federal Register face a 58.8% antidumping duty.

The antidumping action was initiated in October 2010 by the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity, which claimed that imports of multi-layered wood flooring were “sold in the United States at dumped prices, and that Chinese manufacturers have gained an unfair competitive advantage.” The coalition includes Anderson Hardwood Floors LLC, Award Hardwood Floors, Baker’s Creek Wood Floors Inc., From the Forest, Howell Hardwood Flooring, Mannington Mills Inc., Nydree Flooring and Shaw Industries Group Inc.

Multi-layered flooring products subject to the antidumping duties are defined as engineered wood products containing plies of veneer and a core material, such as particleboard, MDF, high-density fiberboard, plywood, etc. One of the issues that the DOC is being asked to address is how it calculated a higher value for core materials than face veneers.

The antidumping duties for multi-layered flooring have attracted far less attention and controversy than similar action brought forth by a group of U.S. plywood manufacturers against hardwood plywood imported from China. Greg Simon, the chair of the American Alliance of Hardwood Plywood recently authored a Guest Blog on Woodworking Network titled, "War on Imported Plywood Bears Collateral Damage for Wood Industry."

Both antidumping actions can be traced back to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who encouraged the U.S. International Trade Commission to launch an investigation into possible trade abuses of imported hardwood plywood and wood flooring in July 2007.