On July 17, 2023, after seven postponements, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) issued the final ruling for the anti-evasion, anti-dumping, and countervailing duty investigation on imported hardwood plywood from Vietnam.
Specifically, DOC maintains the preliminary determination for the 5 production scenarios within the scope of the product under investigation.
However, DOC has reevaluated 3 duty evasion production scenarios:
- Front and back veneers, with core components assembled (e.g., core panels) produced in China and assembled in Vietnam.
- Complete core panels produced in China and combined with front and/or back veneer layers produced in Vietnam or a third country.
- Multi-layer core veneer panels produced in China, combined in Vietnam to produce core veneer panels, and combined with front and/or back veneer panels produced in China, Vietnam, or a third country.
Two production scenarios deemed by DOC as duty evasion scenarios include:
- Front, back, and separate core panels produced in China and assembled into hardwood plywood in Vietnam.
- Individual core panels produced in China, processed into a single core panel in Vietnam, and combined with front and/or back veneer panels produced in Vietnam and another third country.
Regarding the list of companies subject to adverse facts available (AFA) data, DOC has also removed two businesses from the list of 22 businesses that failed to respond to the questionnaire, which are An An Plywood Joint Stock Company and Greatwood Hung Yen Joint Stock Company.
Four businesses identified as cooperating in the preliminary determination have been added to the list of companies that refused to cooperate and were not verified in the final determination, including Cam Lam Joint Stock Company, TL Trung Viet Company Limited, VVAT Company Limited, and Zhongjia Wood Company Limited.
DOC has also published a list of 24 companies that did not cooperate in the final determination and 13 businesses that failed to respond to the questionnaire in the final determination.
DOC will apply the duty rate based on adverse facts available (AFA) information for these 37 companies. The deposit rate stated in the preliminary determination is 183.36% for anti-dumping (AD) duties and 22.98% for countervailing duties (CVD). These businesses are also not eligible for the self-certification regime.
Source: goviet.org.vn
