WASHINGTON – The U.S. Commerce Department has issued its preliminary determination in the countervailing duty investigation of mattresses from China, setting the countervailing duty rate at 97.78% for all producers and exporters, officials said.
Countervailing duties are a type of tariff imposed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to offset the value of unfair subsidies provided by a foreign government.
CBP will begin collecting these countervailing duties once DOC’s preliminary determination is published in the Federal Register, which is likely to occur in the next five to seven business days. The countervailing duties will be in addition to the regular duties that apply to mattresses and the antidumping duties collected on mattresses from China (which range from 57.03 to 1731.75%, depending on the exporter or foreign producer of the specific mattresses being imported from China), according to the International Sleep Products Assn.
In announcing this decision, DOC noted that the Chinese parties in the case “did not act to the best of their ability to respond to Commerce’s request for information.” As a result, DOC calculated the amount of countervailing duties to impose by drawing “adverse inferences in selecting from among the facts otherwise available,” ISPA said.
DOC also announced that the final determination in this countervailing duty case will be postponed until Jan. 11, 2021, to align with the deadlines for final determinations in the pending antidumping duty investigations of mattresses imported from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.
Several weeks ago, DOC had, as expected, postponed the preliminary determinations in the antidumping cases until Oct. 27, resulting in the final determinations in those cases also being postponed until Jan. 11, 2021, ISPA said.
