Plywood Countervailing Anti-dumping

Federal Register /Vol. 78, No. 184 /Monday, September 23, 2013 /Notices 58283

The scope of the investigation excludes the following items: (1) structural plywood (also known as "industrial plywood" or "industrial panels") that is manufactured and stamped to meet U.S. Products Standard PS 1-09, PS 2-09, or PS 2-10 for Structural Plywood (including any revisions to that standard or any substantially equivalent international standard intended for structural plywood), including but not limited to the "bond performance" requirements set forth at paragraph 5.8.6.4 of that Standard and the performance criteria detailed at Table 4 through 10 of that Standard; (2) products which have a face and back veneer of cork; (3) multilayered wood flooring, as described in the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on Multilayered Wood Flooring from the People's Republic of China, Import Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce Investigation Nos. A-570-970 and C-570-971 (published December 8, 2011), and additionally, multilayered wood flooring with a face veneer of bamboo or composed entirely of bamboo; (4) plywood which has a shape or design other than a flat panel; (5) products made entirely from bamboo and adhesives (also known as "solid bamboo").

US government started to charge very high duty for bamboo plywood since May of 2013 because of countervailing and antidumping act. Bothbest thought this is really a big mistake. Bamboo is a green and eco friendly material admitted in the world, it is planted manually and well-managed by the farmer. It is not like wood, grown up with costing big resource.

Countervailing duty - CVD is 22.63% on invoice amount, antidumping duty - ADD is 63.96% on the invoice, plus regular 8% tax, this is 95.06% duty, very expensive. After importing, the distribution price is minimum twice, even third times of FOB cost. The high duty kills most of consumption of bamboo plywood in US market because the customer can't afford such higher cost, they like green bamboo, but they couldn't pay much more money than wood plywood.

There is only one solution to avoid of CVD and ADD, that is trans-shipment. We ship bamboo container to Port Klang, Malaysia and discharge at the port. The shipping company will organize the documents - Certificate of Origin which will state bamboo is produced in Malaysia. With those papers, US customs will charge 8% duty only.

China is the only country manufacturing bamboo plywood in the world. Bamboo plywood is somehow involved with modern technology, like gluing, pressing, conditioning etc. It is quite different than wood plywood. For this product, it makes no sense for the manufacturer to sell at very cheap price, this will ruin the market completely and every manufacturer will be a loser.

We really hope US government can adjust the act for bamboo plywood. It is listed under plywood HS codes, but it differs than wood on material, manufacturing, distribution and application etc. Bamboo plywood should continue to be 8% duty, same as bamboo flooring.