Tim Brightbill Discusses Commerce’s Anti-Circumvention Inquiry into Chinese Hardwood Plywood Imports

September 24, 2018

Timothy C. Brightbill, partner in Wiley Rein’s International Trade Practice, was quoted by Law360 in a September 21 article about the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (Commerce) plan to investigate whether Chinese companies were altering their products to avoid tariffs on hardwood plywood imports.

According to Law360, Commerce, in January, issued anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on the hardwood plywood imports, after the Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood, represented by Mr. Brightbill, claimed Chinese producers and exporters were selling their products at unfairly low prices in the U.S.

In a complaint filed in June, the coalition said that even before the orders were issued, the Chinese companies began “preemptively circumventing” the duties by offering new plywood products made from altered materials that they told customers would not be subject to the duties.

Mr. Brightbill applauded Commerce’s decision to launch the inquiry, adding that he was looking forward to a “thorough investigation and final determination.”

“We commend the Commerce Department for initiating this important inquiry,” Mr. Brightbill told Law360. “In our view, the facts will clearly show that these goods were developed specifically to evade the 200 percent tariffs on hardwood plywood from China.”

To read the article, click here (subscription required).