China Wood Flooring: Plywood With Opaque PVC Coating Outside of Scope
M-Wave’s film-faced plywood products are not subject to the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on multilayered wood flooring from China (A-570-970 / C-570-971), said the Commerce Department in a final scope ruling. The polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film that covers the plywood obscures the “wooden” look of the material, putting it outside of the scope, the agency said.
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The product at issue is a 17-ply cross-grained wood with a layer of PVC film applied to one of the faces. The PVC film is darkly tinted and opaque, obscuring the grain, texture, and markings of the plywood that it covers.
The scope of the order covers products made of at least two plies of wood veneers, and subject products may be either coated or uncoated. But the scope does not include any instruction on whether PVC coating is included. Turning to the 19 CFR 351.225(k)(1) factors, Commerce looked at the ITC’s final injury determination from the investigation, which highlighted “the importance of a visible wood outer veneer for inclusion in this scope.” The ITC report discussed coatings only in that they “maintain or enhance the natural look of the wood flooring,” Commerce said. And the original petition made it clear that the petitioners’ intent was for subject merchandise to have a wood face veneer, it said. Because a wood veneer face is such an important feature to the scope, and the PVC film obscures it, M-Wave’s plywood is not subject to the scope, said Commerce.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the scope ruling.