On June 26, 2017, a press release issued from the Department of Commerce (DOC) brought forward what the softwood lumber industry had been awaiting, and that was the result of the Antidumping (AD) investigation. The announcement further stated that “critical circumstances” was found against lumber producers who fell into the AD’s “All Others” category.
Within this announcement was a factsheet outlining various points and included “exclusions”, something not seen in the Countervailing duty preliminary determination.
While the exclusions included only minimally processed US lumber, box spring frame kits and radius-cut box spring frame kits, the information that was being sought were answers to the exclusion requests, which the DOC made public in a 54 page document dated June 23rd but only released on June 27, 2017.
Further to the document, specific mention was made of those articles that have been excluded, and those that had not. Examples of excluded products are:
- Assembled pallets;
- Assembled trusses and I-joists;
- Assembled garage doors;
- Assembled door and window frames;
- Open-webbed floor joists;
- Edge-glued wood;
- Cross-laminated timber;
- Assembled furniture and finished furniture kits,
- Assembled wood toys;
- Assembled wooden frames for paintings,
- Assembled wood blinds;
- Clothes hangers; tableware; trays;
- Wall art and marquetry,
- Butcher block countertops and cutting boards
On the other hand, Commerce rejected a bevy of requests to exempt the following items from the scope in its preliminary determination.
- Truss kits,
- Pallet kits and notched stringers
- Home packages and kits,
- Window and door frame components,
- Tongue and groove flooring products,
- Siding,
- Pre-cut bridging, pre-finished boards with a primer, stain, or coating applied to all four finished sides,
- High-value lumber (including finger-jointed pine lumber),
- Landscape ties,
- Lumber produced in Canada from U.S.-origin logs,
- Lumber produced from logs harvested on First Nations Treaty land or private land,
- Bed frame and crating ladder components.
In a previous announcement, Commerce stated that lumber produced in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland-Labrador from timber harvested in those provinces, and so certified by the Atlantic Lumber Bureau, will be excluded from both AD and CVD. This is not expected to be effective until the Final determination is made, currently scheduled for September 7, 2017, unless postponed.
In closing, the Federal Register posting which establishes the effective date, has been scheduled for June 30, 2017. Following that publication, a “Message” sent from the DOC to US Customs and Border Protection, will initiate programming in ACE. Until ACE is programmed to accept AD payments, we will continue with CVD entry filings only.
We will send out alerts when ACE is capable of accepting AD submissions.
Please direct any questions you may have to Livingston’s US Regulatory Affairs group: [email protected].