The U.S. Department of Commerce has assigned a 234.51% duty to Chinese innerspring producer Tai Wa Hong Group.
The DOC assigned the duty as part of its review of shipments of uncovered innerspring units, which are used in innerspring mattresses, in the Feb. 1, 2011-Jan. 31, 2012 period.
In the review, the DOC treated Tai Wa Hong Commercial & Industrial (Macau) Co. Ltd. and Macau Commercial & Industrial Spring Mattress Manufacturer (Macau Commercial) as a single entity called Tai Wa Hong Group.
The DOC said it applied the high duty because Tai Wa Hong failed to cooperate to the best of its ability in providing information relating to the annual review.
The uncovered innerspring antidumping case was initially filed by Leggett & Platt in late 2007. It alleged that producers in China, South Africa and Vietnam were shipping these units to the U.S. at unfair prices. The U.S. government determined that those pricing tactics had caused material injury to U.S. producers such as Leggett & Platt.
This analysis ultimately resulted in the imposition of duties on the Chinese shipments ranging from 118.17% to 234.51%. The later rate is also known as the all-China rate and is typically applied to companies that don't cooperate with investigations or that are found to be guilty of dumping these goods unto the U.S. market at prices well below production costs.
The duties are assigned to the factories, but paid by importers of record in the U.S.
