The Commerce Department announced Wednesday that it would impose duties from 39% to as high as 1,732% on imports of Chinese mattresses. In a separate announcement, the agency said it had made a preliminary determination that China, Mexico, and Germany were illegally dumping stainless steel kegs on to U.S. markets, and it would soon start imposing duties of 2% to as high as 80% on those products.
All decisions are preliminary. The agency said it would instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers.
“The strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump Administration. Since the beginning of the current Administration, Commerce has initiated 168 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations — this is a 223 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous administration,” the agency said.
The department said that imports of mattresses from China were valued at about $437 million in 2017, while imports of refillable stainless steel kegs from China, Germany, and Mexico were valued at an estimated $18 million, $12 million, and $6 million, respectively.
The final decision by the department on the mattress issue is expected in October. A final decision on the keg duties is expected in August regarding Mexico and in October for China and Germany. In all cases, the U.S. International Trade Commission would then be expected to make final determinations later in the year.
