On June 24, 2019, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) made a preliminary determination that there was “a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of quartz surface products from India and Turkey that are allegedly subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value.”
Originally filed back in May, the initial complaint by Cambria Company LLC, a domestic producer of quartz surface products, requested evaluations for both antidumping and countervailing impacts under Section 732(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930. Now, with an affirmative determination, the Department of Commerce will continue their review to determine cash deposit requirements and penalties under the following schedule:
August 1, 2019 – Preliminary Countervailing Duty Determination Due
October 15, 2019 – Preliminary Antidumping Duty Determinations Due
The merchandise covered by the investigations is certain quartz surface products, describe ed as follows:
Quartz surface products consist of slabs and other surfaces created from a mixture of materials that includes predominately silica (e.g., quartz, quartz powder, cristobalite), resin binder (e.g., an unsaturated polyester), and other materials, including, but not limited to, pigments, cement, or other additives. In addition to slabs, the scope of these investigations includes, but is not limited to, other surfaces such as countertops, backsplashes, vanity tops, bar tops, work tops, tabletops, flooring, wall facing, shower surrounds, fire place surrounds, mantels, and tiles. Quartz surface products are covered by these investigations whether or not polished, cut, fabricated, cured, edged, finished, thermal formed, packaged, and regardless of the type of surface finish.
Subject merchandise includes material matching the above description that has been finished, packaged, or otherwise fabricated in a third country, including by cutting, polishing, curing, edging, thermoforming, attaching to, or packaging with another product, or any other finishing, packaging, or fabrication that would not otherwise remove the merchandise from the scope of the investigations if performed in the country of manufacture of the quartz surface products.
The scope of the investigations does not cover:
- quarried stone surface products; such as
- granite,
- marble,
- soapstone, or
- quartzite
- crushed glass surface products; such as
- crushed glass where content is greater than any other single material, by actual weight;
- there are pieces of crushed glass visible across the surface of the product;
- at least some of the individual pieces of crushed glass that are visible across the surface are larger than 1 centimeter wide as measured at their widest cross-section (glass pieces); and
- the distance between any single glass piece and the closest separate glass piece does not exceed three inches.
The products subject to the scope are currently classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) under the following subheading:
- 6810.99.0010
- 6810.11.0010
- 6810.11.0070
- 6810.19.1200
- 6810.19.1400
- 6810.19.5000
- 6810.91.0000
- 6810.99.0080
- 6815.99.4070
- 2506.10.0010
- 2506.10.0050
- 2506.20.0010
- 2506.20.0080
- 7016.90.1050
The HTSUS subheadings set forth above are provided for convenience and U.S. Customs purposes only.
For a the complete USITC Investigation Report, visit https://www.usitc.gov/investigations/701731/2019/quartz_surface_products_india_and_turkey/preliminary.htm
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