Suppliers urged to support petition
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, August 18, 2003
Greensboro, N.C. — The American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade appealed for financial support of its antidumping petition at a meeting here last week that drew over 450 people from 354 companies supplying U.S. case goods makers.
Initial response has been encouraging, said Doug Bassett, vice president at Vaughan-Bassett, although he wasn't ready to release figures late last week.
Suppliers at the meeting included sawmills, component manufacturers, freight companies and others.
They can't sign the petition targeting Chinese wood bedroom imports, but they have as big a stake in the case as manufacturers, said John Bassett, chairman and chief executive officer of Vaughan-Bassett and a spokesman for the committee.
Suppliers also are losing sales and jobs as China grabs a growing slice of the U.S. bedroom furniture market, John Bassett said. "You're in pain just like we're in pain," Bassett told the suppliers. "If you want to help yourselves, we need your support."
Bassett expects the committee's legal fees to approach $1.5 million, and he asked suppliers for immediate support at one of four levels — $1,000, $3,000, $5,000 and over $5,000.
Contributing suppliers can remain anonymous. "I'm sure many of you supply companies who aren't participating in the petition," Bassett said.
He said Vaughan-Bassett plans to contribute between $250,000 and $300,000, and already has written a check for $70,000.
An attendee asked why suppliers doing business with Chinese manufacturers should risk alienating those customers. Bassett responded with a patriotic appeal: "I'm going to give you the short answer — because you're an American, that's why. Ladies and gentlemen, you were given your freedom, and you owe something to your country."
Another person asked whether the petition would seek duties on bedroom components made in China, as well as completed pieces. That is under consideration, said Joe Dorn, an attorney with the Washington law firm King & Spalding, which represents the petitioners.
With many domestic producers using imported parts, the inclusion of components would increase the impact of any favorable ruling by federal agencies.
Dorn's firm has won six of seven antidumping cases targeting Chinese goods, involving natural-bristle paintbrushes, cookware, apple juice concentrate, two types of magnesium and gift boxes. It lost an antidumping case on synthetic-bristle paintbrushes.
"I think we have at least a 50–50 chance of winning," Dorn said of the wood bedroom petition.
