Commerce Finalizes Circumvention Finding for Vietnam Plywood With Chinese Inputs
The Commerce Department is finalizing its determination that imports of hardwood plywood from Vietnam made from Chinese and third-country inputs are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on hardwood plywood from China (A-570-051/C-570-052).
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In a notice released June 19, the agency continued to find imports of Vietnamese plywood with Chinese inputs under two production scenarios are circumventing the AD/CVD orders on China: 1) face/back veneers and individual core veneers produced in China; and (2) individual core veneers manufactured in China and processed into a veneer core platform in Vietnam and combined with face/back veneer produced in Vietnam or a third country.
Commerce also changed its finding from the preliminary determination it issued in August 2022 to find that plywood from Vietnam produced under three more production scenarios are circumventing the AD/CVD orders. Previously the agency had found the plywood covered by the scope of the orders. These three production scenarios are: (1) face veneer, back veneer, and assembled core components (e.g., veneer core platforms) manufactured in China and assembled in Vietnam; (2) fully assembled veneer core platforms manufactured in China that are combined in Vietnam with face and/or back veneers produced in Vietnam or third countries; and (3) multi-ply panels of glued core veneers manufactured in China that are combined in Vietnam to produce veneer core platforms and combined with either a face and/or back veneer produced in China, Vietnam or a third country.
Commerce will continue to require certifications from importers of Vietnamese plywood not made from Chinese inputs under the scenarios listed above in order for them to avoid AD/CVD. For unliquidated entries on or after June 17, 2020, and until Aug. 28, 2022, the deadline for certifications is Aug. 14, 2023. For entries on or after Aug. 28, certifications should already have been completed prior to the date of entry summary.
Going forward, for entries on or after July 20, 2023, certifications should be completed by the importer prior to the date of entry summary, and exporters should provide their certifications to the importer at or prior to the date of shipment.
Thirty-seven companies are ineligible for certification because they did not cooperate with the anti-circumvention inquiry. See Appendix V of Commerce’s notice for a full list.
Where no certification is maintained, and the AD/CVD orders on hardwood plywood potentially apply to an entry, CBP will continue to suspend liquidation and collect cash deposits at the China-wide rate of 183.36% or the all-others rate for CVD of 22.98%.
Commerce said it is expanding the period of its ongoing administrative reviews covering entries in calendar year 2022 so that they also cover plywood entries from Vietnam that are circumventing the AD/CVD orders from June 17, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2021. The agency is also allowing interested parties an opportunity to request a review of their entries of hardwood plywood exported from Vietnam and entered during this expanded period of review (i.e., the earliest entry from Vietnam suspended as a result of the preliminary determination through Dec. 31, 2022). Requests for review are due Aug. 3.