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Fed Court Releases Full Decision on Chinese Plywood; Victory to AAHP on All Fundamental Issues

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For Immediate Release from the American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood
June 28, 2016
Media Contact: Mike Burita; mike@buritamedia.com

Federal Court Releases Full Decision Dealing Victory to AAHP on All Fundamental Issues

Washington, DC – The U.S. Court of International Trade released its public decision upholding the International Trade Commission’s (ITC’s) core findings that Chinese and domestic plywood differ so significantly that the ITC was correct to conclude that imports from China had no impact on the domestic industry’s competitive and financial position.   This decision is a victory for the American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood (AAHP) and its members, who argued that the domestic plywood producers’ antidumping and countervailing duty complaint should be thrown out because fundamental differences in the Chinese and domestic products mean that the Chinese product cannot cause any competitive harm to the domestic producers.  The ITC unanimously agreed with the AAHP – terminating the unfair trade case in November of 2013.  The Court of International Trade’s ruling now confirms the ITC’s core findings and means that the AAHP’s legal theory was supported by evidence while the petitioners’ opposing theories were not.

The court did send the case back to the ITC to specifically address the Commerce Department’s final antidumping duty levels as well as the countervailing duty findings.  However, the court only ordered the ITC to provide further explanation on these issues and did not authorize the ITC to revisit its core finding that Chinese plywood had no impact on the domestic plywood industry.   The AAHP is confident that the ITC will conclude that the Commerce Department’s antidumping and countervailing duty findings are irrelevant and therefore cannot disturb the ITC’s “no injury” finding.    As analogized in AAHP’s prior statement, the decision is “like giving the ITC an A on its term paper but asking them to fill out footnote citations to raise its grade to an A+.” 

Read Full Decision from the Court HERE.

The American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood is an organization of American importers, distributors and manufacturers of hardwood plywood, along with other U.S. companies that depend on the availability of global resources.

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