On Friday, April 19, 2024, the week before Coverings, the Tile Council of North America (TCNA) reported that a group of U.S. ceramic tile manufacturers called the Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile, filed an anti-dumping petition and a countervailing duty petition to fight what they perceived to be unfair trade practices from Indian ceramic manufacturers who were exporting to the U.S. Recently, a preliminary decision from the U. S. government was made for both petitions.
History
The anti-dumping petition sought the imposition of substantial tariffs of between 328% to 489% on imports of ceramic tile from India to remedy Less Than Fair Value (LTFV) imports that the Coalition claims have injured domestic manufacturers and flooded the market with uncertified porcelain tile. The countervailing duty (or anti-subsidy) petition sought the imposition of additional tariffs to remedy the impact of numerous Indian government subsidies – subsidies that have further injured domestic manufacturers.
The Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile consists of domestic ceramic tile manufacturers Crossville/AHF Products, Inc.; Dal-Tile Corporation; Del Conca USA, Inc.; Landmark Ceramics – UST, Inc.; Florim USA; Florida Tile; Portobello America Manufacturing LLC; Wonder Porcelain, and StonePeak Ceramics Inc., representing over 90% of all U.S. ceramic tile manufacturing companies.
TCNA’s Eric Astrachan discussed the Indian anti-dumping/countervailing duty petitions during the TCNA press conference at Coverings 2024 in April. He noted that American tile manufacturers have welcomed fair competition from imports, and manufacturers from Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and China have built factories in the U.S. to serve the North American market, fueled by local raw materials and an able workforce. But Indian imports were considered a different story.
“Indian tile producers enjoy substantial government subsidies, which in conjunction with selling excess capacity at dumped prices, has allowed them to flood the U.S. market,” Astrachan said. “Over the last 10 years, sales of tile from India have increased from a mere 344,000 square feet in 2013 to nearly 405 million square feet by the end of 2023. Our domestic manufacturers had no alternative but to petition the federal government for relief from these unjust trading practices. The vitality of the U.S. industry and the livelihoods of thousands of employees and their families within our member companies depend on it.”
Countervailing duty (CVD) preliminary determination
A preliminary Affirmative Determination by the International Trade Administration (ITA) was issued on September 24, suspending liquidation of import entries from that date forward. After a study of the data submitted by the top two exporters, Win-Tel Group and Antiqa Group — but not verified by the Department of Commerce — the ITA set a preliminary CVD of 3.05% for Win-Tel, and 3.15% for Antiqa. All other Indian ceramic tile exporters to the U.S. received a weighted average of 3.08% that is applied above the existing 8.5% that is normally charged. This applies to products imported for the 90 days preceding September 24.
Anti-dumping preliminary determination
The ITA issued a preliminary determination in the Federal Register on December 2 that the ceramic tile from two named respondents and Indian exporters — Win-Tel Group and Antiqa Group and other manufacturers– “is not being, or is not likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV).”
“Consistent with section 733(d) of the Act, Commerce has not calculated an estimated weighted-average dumping margin for all other producers and exporters because it has not made an affirmative preliminary determination of sales at LTFV.”
The announcement continues in the Federal Register: “Because Commerce has made a negative preliminary determination of sales at LTFV with regard to subject merchandise, Commerce will not direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to suspend liquidation or to require a cash deposit of estimated anti-dumping duties for entries of ceramic tile from India.”
A final determination has been postponed for 135 days, with a decision due on April 17, 2025. Though the CVD determination is set for February 5, 2025, the ITA decided its AD and CVD determination dates would be aligned, so expect a definitive decision on April 17, 2025, with an assessment of injury to the domestic industry following approximately two months later.
TCNA’s Eric Astrachan cautioned importers that “the final determination of the anti-subsidy tariffs would be retroactive to 90 days before the date of the preliminary determination and the anti-dumping tariff would be retroactive to December 2nd and potentially 90 days before that.” He further stated, “The preliminary tariffs — and I cannot emphasize this enough — are based on unaudited and unverified data provided by the Indian respondents without thorough consideration of their affiliated tile companies. We do not want importers to be hurt by the non-negligible tariffs we believe the Department of Commerce will levy when their investigation onsite reveals dumping, subsidies, or obfuscation.”
Also expressing concern, Congressman John Rose (R-TN) and Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN) sent a letter to the Secretary of Commerce noting that “Commerce’s preliminary determination in the anti-subsidy investigation failed to fully and adequately examine important issues, including natural gas subsidies and the undisclosed affiliations of Indian producers.” They added, “We urge the Department to properly assess the data and finalize robust duties on Indian ceramic tile imports.”
Both the letter to the Secretary of Commerce and a press release regarding it are available on Representative Rose’s website, here.
