Importers Oppose Quartz-Tariff Expansion

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Four major U.S. importers/distributors of hard-surfaces seek to block an expansion of the proposed tariffs on Chinese-made quartz surfaces.

In a Feb. 19 filing with the federal Commerce Department, the companies - Arizona Tile, Bedrosians Tile and Stone, MSI and Piedrafina Marble Inc. - objected to a request from Cambria Company LLC to include “glass quartz” materials in the group of products subject to the tariffs.

Cambria asked the Commerce Department on Feb. 14 to include surfaces substituting fine-grained glass powder for quartz sand, claiming that the process is an attempt to circumvent the unfair-trade tariffs that could total more than 300 of declared customs value.

The Cambria filing also offered definitions to exempt materials using recycled crushed glass, as seen in U.S.-made products such as Vetrazzo and IceStone.

The four companies' response objects to the lateness of Cambria's request in a process that began with the U.S. manufacturer's original petition to the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) last April.

The response also details a series of communications between the USITC and Cambria's legal counsel from April 18-May 1 last year to clarify the issue of silica content in hard-surface materials, and if glass materials would be included as part of the unfair-trade investigation.

The Commerce Department will issue a final ruling this spring on the unfair-trade tariffs.