Commerce on Remand Says Importer's Wood Boards Are Millwork Products
The Commerce Department said on remand at the Court of International Trade that importer Hardware Resources' edge-glued wood boards are wood mouldings and millwork products subject to antidumping and countervailing duty orders on that product from China (Hardware Resources v. United States, CIT # 23-00150).
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Hardwood Resources sought a scope ruling for its edge-glued boards made of solid white birch that are finger-jointed and edge-glued. After Commerce found the products to be in-scope, the Court of International Trade remanded the decision, finding that the agency "ignored the threshold question of whether the product at issue is a wood molding or millwork product" (see 2412170026).
On remand, Commerce conducted an analysis of Hardwood Resources' boards using the (k)(1) sources, initially providing a definition of "wood moldings and millwork products," since there wasn't one in the scope. Relying on submissions from the petitioner and Commerce's preliminary determination, the agency said wood moldings and millwork products means "products that are manufactured from a type of wood or composite material and are woodwork or building materials that are produced in a mill or otherwise undergo remanufacturing.”
Using this definition, the agency then analyzed Hardwood Resources' products. The importer said its boards are made of wood that undergoes remanufacturing into edge-glued boards. The importer said to make its boards, pieces of scrap wood are finger-jointed and edge-glued together into boards. The resulting boards are then planned, trimmed, coated, cut, lightly sanded and scored using a straight saw along the board length.
Commerce said "the steps of this manufacturing process as described by Hardware Resources in the Scope Ruling Application are demonstrative of a remanufacturing process of scrap wood to a completed woodwork or building material: an edge-glued board.” As a result, the importers' boards fall within the meaning of "wood moldings and millwork products," the brief said.
The agency added that Hardware Resources' boards "match the other characteristics" of subject merchandise, since they are made of wood, finger-jointed and edge-glued, the remand results said. The orders have specific language stating that products are covered whether imported raw, coated, primed, painted, stained, wrapped or treated with any combination of the preceding steps. As a result, a "UV coating would not distinguish Hardware Resources’ goods as out of scope, but rather, within the scope of the Orders given the other requirements are met," the brief said.
The fact that Hardware Resources' product has a "1 mm mark ('score')" also doesn't render the product out of scope, the agency said. The petitioner gave an excerpt of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule in the underlying investigations which describes continuously shaped wood as wood that is "tongued, grooved, rebated, chambered, V-jointed, beaded, molded, rounded or the like along any of its edges, ends or faces, whether or not planed, sanded, or end jointed.” Based on this, and comments on the intended scope from the petitioner, Commerce said that "continuously shaped" includes "grooved" and nothing supports the conclusion that Hardware Resources' product differs "in any material way from a groove."