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Window Shade Slats Not Covered by AD/CVD on Wood Mouldings, Millwork Products From China

Wooden window shade slats imported by Ralph Friedland & Brother, Inc. aren't covered by antidumping and countervailing duty orders on Chinese-origin wood mouldings and millwork products because the slats aren't primarily intended for construction, the Commerce Department said in a Jan. 14 scope ruling.

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The products considered by the scope ruling were window shade slats “cut from a kiln dried wood picket made of Paulownia Tomentosa, which is a rough piece of wood, not decorative, of poor quality, and more akin to scrap,” Commerce said. Once imported, they and other components are combined to manufacture window shade assemblies, the agency said.

The orders cover wood or wood-like products “which are continuously shaped wood or finger-jointed or edge-glued moulding or millwork blanks.”

Commerce said it relied on the orders’ language and information about the product from the petition to reach its ruling. The examples of subject merchandise that appear in the orders are “products commonly used in construction,” it said, whereas Ralph Friedland & Brother’s products aren’t. And the petition described merchandise with a “variety of exterior and interior uses, primarily in residential and non-residential construction” that is “intended to be used as a covering for floors, walls, doors, and other areas,” it said.

The agency also noted that the petitioner stated in a supplement that it didn’t intend the orders to cover “window blind components.”