US Commerce Department Rules That Vietnam Circumvented Hardwood Plywood Duties Using Chinese Core Materials

The US Department of Commerce has preliminary determined that hardwood plywood (HWPW) assembled and exported from Vietnam to the US used Chinese core materials. After investigating several different types of HWPW, the agency ruled that the HWPW are subject to significant antidumping and countervailing duties that could be as high as 200%.

According to a statement from the Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood, the Commerce Department has made the determination on a country-wide basis, meaning that this determination applies to all HWPW exported from Vietnam.

The ruling was posted in the Federal Register on July 29, 2022, and states:

“The US Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that certain hardwood plywood products and veneered panels (hardwood plywood) exported from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam), which were assembled in Vietnam using hardwood plywood inputs sourced from the People’s Republic of China (China) are products of China and are subject to the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on hardwood plywood from China. Additionally, Commerce preliminarily determines that certain hardwood plywood assembled in Vietnam using hardwood plywood inputs sourced from China are circumventing the AD and CVD orders on hardwood plywood from China.”