WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) urged the Biden administration to enforce America’s anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) laws against predatory import practices in the quartz countertop industry. The U.S. market for quartz countertops is the largest in the world. However, unfair trade practices, especially from Asia, are rampant in this sector as domestic resellers and foreign manufacturers collaborate to violate U.S. trade law.
In 2018, a Commerce Department investigation determined that Chinese quartz countertop manufacturers were dumping product in the U.S. market. As a result, the Commerce Department imposed tariffs to address China’s illegal trade activity.
After the U.S. imposed tariffs on China in 2018, Chinese companies began transshipping through Vietnam, Malaysia, and other Southeast Asian countries to evade the duties. Much of the Chinese industry’s equipment was uprooted and transplanted to India. The result was a 2019 import surge from India that was a whopping seven times 2016 import levels. Our quartz countertop workers were again under assault from multinational profiteering.
“The Indian importers as well as American resellers are currently represented by sophisticated, powerful D.C. law firms that know their duty to provide complete, accurate and timely information in trade investigations,” the letter states. “Commerce has been fair to the Respondents. But the Indian companies have been unfair to U.S. industry. Nothing can explain a 700% increase in shipments other than a predatory scheme to take over the U.S. market.”
Subsidized and dumped imports of granite countertops from Asia—aided and abetted by U.S. based resellers—have already destroyed the U.S.-based granite countertop industry. The same destruction could easily happen to the quartz countertop industry without strong and effective enforcement action from Commerce.
“The imposition of AD/CVD orders on quartz countertops from China has encouraged the U.S. domestic quartz industry to expand. The $800 million in new domestic investments hang in the balance,” the letter continues. “Commerce action will determine whether American retains and grows the quartz countertop industry to serve our massive domestic market, or whether it will go the way of the granite countertop industry.”
Read CPA’s full letter to Commerce here.
