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PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL: ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATIONS: CTDA MEMBER UPDATE ON TRADE ISSUES RELEVANT TO THE CERAMIC TILE INDUSTRY
This will provide you with a brief update on trade issues that may be relevant to your daily business involving the promotion and sale of ceramic tile.
This past Monday, the Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile (Coalition) filed a complaint with the U.S. Court of International Trade contesting the final determination issued by the Commerce Department on April 23rd in the Antidumping case targeting US imports of ceramic tile from India. Commerce determined that ceramic tile from India is not being, or is not likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value and terminated the antidumping case brought by the Coalition against tile from India.
The Coalition acknowledged the heavy caseload of the Commerce Department which may have impaired its processing of its antidumping complaint against India. Nonetheless, it asked the Court to overturn the agency’s decision and to impose antidumping duties on imported tile from India for import entries filed on or after April 23rd. Spearheaded by the Tile Council of North America, the Coalition notes that antidumping duties that may result from this filing may be “substantial.”
The Coalition’s case does not challenge the countervailing duty (“CVD”) case also initiated by it which resulted in relatively small additional CVD duty deposits being currently assessed on entries of Indian ceramic tile.
By one estimate, only about 20 percent of court challenges to agency antidumping determinations are successful given the presumption of correctness of an agency determination by the courts. This presumption places the burden of proof on the party challenging the administrative determination to demonstrate that the agency's decision was incorrect. CTDA will closely monitor the progress of the Coalition’s case.
Trump threatens to impose double US tariffs on products from Spain. Reacting to Spain’s refusal to commit to meeting NATO’s 5 percent of GNP spending target by 2035, President Trump today threatened to double additional US tariffs on products imported from Spain above what would be assessed products of other NATO member countries. Were this to occur, the US tariff cost impact on Spanish tile compared to that from Italy and other NATO nations would be substantial.
CTDA will monitor the progress of the Coalition’s case and tariff matters and will alert our members to any significant developments.
If you have any questions, please contact CTDA Legal Counsel Robin Grover at (202) 302-1653.
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