Flatbed Utility Carts Not Covered by AD Order on Hand Trucks From China
Flatbed utility carts imported by Utility Transportation Carts aren’t subject to antidumping duties on hand trucks and parts from China, the Commerce Department said in a March 10 scope ruling. The carts lack the requisite horizontal edge or toe plate, it said.
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The scope ruling considered carts with aluminum frames and two aluminum tube handles with rubber grip, the department said.
The antidumping duty order, meanwhile, covers hand trucks, which Commerce described as a vertical “hand-propelled barrow” with at least one handle near the upper part of the frame and at least two wheels near the lower part of the frame, e.g., a dolly. The trucks must have a horizontal edge or toe plate that “slides under a load for purposes of lifting and/or moving the load,” it said.
Noting that it, “at its discretion, may also take into account primary interpretive sources in making a scope ruling,” Commerce said it considered the product’s characteristics, the language of the scope and prior rulings in making its decision.
Utility Transportation Carts’ products don’t have a horizontal edge or toe plate that can slide under and support a load, it said. The importer’s products, it said, “require a user to physically place cargo onto the cart.” It also said the importer cited another ruling dealing with a luggage cart that would collapse “if one used the cart to slide under a load.”