FBI Sues for Byrd Amendment Money

February 21, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on February 2007 Furniture Brands International filed suit in January in the U.S. Court of International Trade to get a piece of pay-outs of antidumping duties on wood bedroom furniture from China. FBI seeks almost $6.4 million of duties collected under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act, also known as the “Byrd Amendment.”

FBI was not part of the group of domestic manufacturers that petitioned the International Trade Commission in 2003 for an antidumping investigation of Chinese manufacturers of wood bedroom furniture.

After the ITC ruled that domestic manufacturers in the category were indeed damaged by dumping in October 2003, it initiated a Department of Commerce investigation that resulted in an antidumping duty order on wood bedroom furniture from China in January 2005.

FBI’s suit names the United States of America, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. International Trade Commission as plaintiffs.

While acknowledging that it did not support the original petition with the International Trade Commission, FBI cited two Court of International Trade rulings in its action: a July 2006 judgment involving crayfish, Chez Sidney v. United States International Trade Commission; and an initial September 2006 ruling in a case involving ball bearings, SKF USA Inc. v. United States, in which both cases CIT ruled that the support requirement of the Byrd Amendment violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause.

Chez Sidney did not support the domestic crayfish industry’s antidumping petition, and SKF had opposed the petition for an investigation of ball-bearing dumping.

FBI did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.

FBI’s case was part of a package of materials provided by the law firm Neville Peterson for an antidumping briefing sponsored by the American Home Furnishings Alliance Wednesday at High Point University. There could be more cases such as FBI’s said John Peterson, an attorney with Neville Peterson.

“The ITC says the SFK case is still up in the air, and I suspect that if this case is still pending this year with the first distribution of Byrd money, I anticipate (FBI will) file an injunction against the distribution,” he said. “I don’t expect this issue to be cleared up for a year or two.”

FBI was one of few vendors that was a vocal opponent of the original petition to investigate Chinese wood bedroom manufacturers, with company personnel testifying on behalf of the opposition at the earliest ITC hearings on the issue.

At an International Trade Commission hearing in November 2004 after the American Furniture Manufacturers for Fair Trade had filed its petition for an antidumping investigation, Lynn Chipperfield, FBI senior vice president and chief administrative officer told ITC that imports were not to blame for furniture manufacturers’ difficulties.

“We don’t need any protection and we’re asking you please don’t do us any favors,” he told ITC. “We ask that you enter a finding that there has not been any material injury to the domestic industry as a result of imports and that you let us go back to work and get on with the business of competing in the international marketplace.”