WASHINGTON, April 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance (AKCA) is commending the affirmative preliminary injury vote at the International Trade Commission (ITC) – an important first step in a long fight against unfairly traded Chinese imports of wooden cabinets and vanities.

On March 6, 2019, the AKCA initiated one of the largest trade cases ever filed against Chinese imports at the ITC and the Department of Commerce – a case which challenges China's manipulation and unfair trade practices in the wooden cabinet and vanity production industry.  Today's unanimous affirmative determination by the ITC, finding preliminarily that the domestic cabinet and vanity industry has been injured or threatened by Chinese imports, paves the way for these antidumping and countervailing duty investigations to continue.

"Today's preliminary vote is an important first step in our long fight against China," said John Gahm, Vice President of Manufacturing at Kitchen Kompact. "Our aim through the AKCA is to stand up for the more than 250,000 American workers employed in the kitchen cabinet industry. Our trade case will help us combat Chinese dumping and subsidies and level the playing field for American workers and their families. We will continue to fight to preserve and strengthen this industry."

"The preliminary injury vote reaffirms that the ITC is taking this case seriously and underscores our assertion that China is using illegal trade practices in its effort to capture global production of wooden cabinets and vanities," said Tim Brightbill, chief counsel for the AKCA and partner at Wiley Rein. "Chinese imports of kitchen cabinet and bath vanities are up more than 75 percent since 2015, which both injures and threatens this multi-billion-dollar American industry."

The AKCA is comprised of more than 45 companies based across the United States. With today's preliminary injury vote, the AKCA continues to call on congressional allies and the Trump administration to support the fight against unfair trade from China and to ensure a level playing field for the American cabinet and vanity industry.  

The investigation will now proceed to the Department of Commerce, which will determine the extent to which Chinese cabinet and vanity imports are dumped by Chinese companies and subsidized by their government.  Commerce is expected to issue preliminary countervailing duty and antidumping duty determinations by May 2019 and August 2019, respectively. If Commerce also reaches affirmative preliminary determinations in these cases, provisional antidumping and countervailing duties will be collected from importers based on the preliminary margins calculated.

About AKCA:

The American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance (AKCA) is a coalition of organizations that have joined forces to fight for American kitchen cabinet workers and our industry. Established in 2019, AKCA is standing up for American workers and supporting the actions of those who oppose China's cheating of America's kitchen cabinet industry. We are proud to support one of the largest trade cases in history filed against China at the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Department of Commerce.

SOURCE American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance